'Maxine's Baby: The Tyler Perry Story' new documentary sells out 2 showings at Black Harvest Film Festival in Chicago - WLS-TV

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Monday, November 13, 2023 10:41PM

'Maxine's Baby: The Tyler Perry Story' shows at Chicago film festival

CHICAGO (WLS) -- One of the most anticipated movies of the Black Harvest Film Festival at the Siskel Film Center is "Maxine's Baby: The Tyler Perry Story," which has already sold out both showings.

From a torturous youth to a showbiz titan's empire, Tyler Perry created his fate and his mom, Maxine, was his superpower for success.

Gelila Bekele and Armani Ortiz have spent over a decade making his movie.

"We wanted to focus on the intimate portrait of a man, who is this man, his origin, the heart of the story is his mother. The reason behind all the success," Bekele said.

"He's not this far away alien who became a gigantic icon, he's a kid from New Orleans who overcame things we all have to overcome," said Ortiz.

Bekele is the mother of Perry's nearly nine-year-old child. He's in the movie a little but she still maintains his privacy.

"He's healing from the past and his experience from the father figure, and then becoming a father, how love is so important," Bekele said.

Madea got a rousing response from audiences on Chicago's South Side at the Regal Theatre, when Perry was first trying out the character. That connection to Chicago is one of the reasons it was so important for this film to be part of this film festival.

"Chicago is basically the birthplace of Madea, obviously Chi Town has always been a supporter of TP and such amazing people over there, and we wanted to bring this story and celebrate it with you guys and hopefully, you got to see yourselves in it as well," said Ortiz.

There are plenty of other great movies showing at the Black Harvest Film festival this week, and if you didn't get tickets to see "Maxine's Baby," it starts streaming Friday on Prime.