inspired by a true story


all the love i could handle is drawn from the real life of my grandmother, pioneering Black filmmaker and civil rights activist Kathleen Collins. In the summer of 1982, Kathleen was racing to finish her groundbreaking feature film — a rare, complex portrait of Black life — while raising two young children.

Told through her daughter’s eyes, this story reveals the intimate, messy, and beautiful push and pull between a mother’s creative dreams and her responsibilities at home. It’s about the sacrifices we make for our art, the wounds we inherit, and the possibility of healing across generations.

For me, this project is more than a film — it’s a personal act of restoration. Growing up, my grandmother’s story was shrouded in silence, and my relationship with my own mother was shaped by that absence. In telling this story, I’ve come to know them both in a new way.

Kathleen Collins was one of the first Black women in America to direct a feature film. A gifted storyteller, she created deeply nuanced, human portraits of Black life at a time when such work was almost unseen in American cinema. She mentored fellow artists like Julie Dash, challenged icons like Spike Lee, and balanced her activism with an uncompromising artistic vision. Though her work was largely overlooked in her lifetime, she is now celebrated as a pioneer whose influence echoes through generations of filmmakers.

This is my love letter to every artist who’s fought to be heard, every mother who’s made mistakes, and every child — still inside us — longing to be loved.