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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 19 > Entry
Lisa Lopes’ mother reluctantly attends film premiere
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wanda Lopes-Colemon reacted like any mother Thursday night when asked her thoughts about the final minutes of “Last Days of Left Eye,” the thought-provoking documentary that opened the 31st annual Atlanta Film Festival at Atlantic Station.
The film chronicles the final weeks of TLC member Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes’ life as she sought to cleanse and spiritually center herself in Honduras. As most Atlantans recall, the controversial and always outspoken performer was killed in a car crash there. Her subsequent funeral drew international media to Georgia.
In “Last Days,” footage from that fateful final ride (obtained from a documentary crew filming Left Eye on the trip) provides the film’s most chilling moments.
Trying to contain her emotions, Lopes-Colemon told us softly: “I never wanted to see it. No mother would want to see that.”
Sensing her discomfort, her co-producers on the project, son Ronald and daughter Reindrop Lopes, added that the decision to use the footage had been a family decision. But Wanda planned to exit the theater Thursday night prior to the film’s conclusion.
As expected, there was a wide range of emotions mixed with the glitz and glamour at the premiere.
Blaque member Shamari DeVoe, a girl group Left Eye was mentoring at the time of her death, was also emotional on the red carpet. “I haven’t really prepared myself for tonight,” she conceded, her eyes filling with tears. “I was supposed to be down there in Honduras with her but we were recording. I realize though that I’m a part of her legacy. She helped me fulfill my dreams.”
New Edition member and Sharmari’s husband Ronnie DeVoe clutched her hand throughout.
The film’s director Lauren Lazin told us that she had one conversation with Lopes a month before her death.
“She was never afraid of death,” Lazin said. “She considered it a transformation. In a way, the film is very inspiring.”
Other notables in attendance: Pop singer Monica, Outkast member Big Boi, Atlanta Falcon Ovie Mughelli, “American Idol” contestant and actress Tamyra Gray and former San Antonio Spurs player Terry Cummings.
A wide smile crossed singer-songwriter India Arie’s face when she recalled how TLC had impacted her as a high schooler, homesick for Georgia while watching MTV in Denver.
“I felt connected to home,” Arie said. “I knew girls who dressed like that, spoke like that and carried themselves the way TLC did. It was a little bit of home reaching out to me.”
One notable no-show on the red carpet: former Atlanta Falcon and Lopes’ ex-boyfriend Andre Rison. Lopes famously burned down Rison’s mansion following an argument between the couple in 1994.
In the doc, Lopes discusses the pair’s often stormy relationship, why she set the fire and Rison’s alleged physical abuse.
Reporters were told that Rison had missed a flight out of Detroit Thursday.
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