Alma on AllMovie

Framed by accusations of incest and overflowing with outrageous family secrets, director Ruth Leitman's Southern Gothic-flavored documentary tells the story of whiskey sippin', country singin' Southern Diva Margie Thorpe, and her lifelong quest to care for her mentally ill mother and alcoholic father. Margie's family isn't exactly a textbook example of stability; her father is a violent alcoholic and her mother Alma is a working class storyteller with the power to weave tragedy into tall tales. Whether the topic is motherhood or mail order sweepstakes, Alma always has something interesting to add to the conversation, and her past is overflowing with romantic stories of bank robbers, murderers, and even Elvis Presley. As stories of a childhood rape slowly come into focus, Alma offers her own unique take on the incident as a daughter's love becomes hopelessly tangled up in secrets and pains from the past.