Stay Prayed Up

The power of Gospel music, prayer and spirituality is really about presence, or the ability to be in touch with a sense of the infinite. This belief is what drew us into the expansive ministry of Mother Lena Mae Perry. Her voice as a bandleader with The Branchettes, is the most apparent, awesome form of her presence. It shakes and reawakens a sense of wonder without fail. How is this small, slight, elderly woman singing with such strength and sureness? It is, like faith, hard to comprehend. And it also embodies many forms; carried into loving community, in quiet, steadfast devotion, in shared prayer and through devastating loss. It is both profound and simple. It is why we made this film and the reason we managed to make it at all.

We are both at a middle age in our lives, with growing families and complicated relationships with organized religion. We struggle with doubt and deadlines and, like a lot of humans, are moving through the world trying to find something to believe in; failing that, at least something to eat. The first time we sat down with Mother Perry and Phil Cook to discuss the idea of film it was around a meal — Smithfield’s Chicken & BBQ for inquiring Southerners. We bowed our heads in prayer, for the first time in a while, and we listened to Mother Perry’s unique, poetic cadence. “It’s me again Lord.” We both felt a shift in time and a deeper sense of ease as familiar as it was surprising. The Irish poet and theologian John O'Donohue once said that, “prayer is a practice and being unpracticed means being more desperate for it.” This shift in our presence would be a guiding sensibility and question for Stay Prayed Up. We knew the film would be driven by a dynamic concert experience, but how could we also center this simple, steadfast spiritual practice of Mother Perry in a way that speaks to those who are desperate to hear it, regardless of their faith or background?

Mother Perry has a real straight line approach to her ministry and her life, which are truly one in the same. She does not deviate from her path, nor will she be moved. From a storytelling perspective, that can seem like a challenge in presenting a compelling narrative. But we both saw this straightforward nature as her unique strength, especially if placed within a community navigating the unknowns of life and the larger inequalities of a society that this sacred music serves to heal and uplift. We, as White filmmakers working within a Black sacred space, also knew that we needed to own and properly account for the historic power dynamic that exists in that relationship and develop an approach to trouble it. Michele Lanier, an AfroCarolinan folklorist, oral historian and colleague, helped guide an accountability process that included sharing ownership of the film with Mother Perry and inviting her daughter, Lena Williams, on as a Producer. Careful consideration was also made in the post process to ensure that Phil, a White musician from Wisconsin, was not presented as an authority on Southern Black Gospel culture. It has not been a perfect process, but we continue to listen, we continue in service to a story that began long before us, and we continue to trust in the relations, love and honesty at the center.

In the midst of a global pandemic and a personal health crisis, we struggled mightily to move this film forward. Mother Perry would say there was no need to fuss. “It’ll work itself out,” was her common refrain. It was comforting to hear, but challenging to take to heart because there was still so much to be done and so many unknowns. Mother Perry, in her age and wisdom, was offering us the gift of a deeper faith; yielding to something outside of our control in order to return to a place of infinite presence within. We hope Stay Prayed Up can be an invitation to a profoundly beautiful spiritual practice; reawakening our immense ability to be with and show up for one another in real presence. It is all we have and it is enough.

— D.L. Anderson & Matt Durning