Realtor Alex Prins’ Touching Short Film Deepens our Understanding of “Home”

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As a real estate agent, Alex Prins makes a living helping people find homes. And as a foster child adopted by loving parents in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Prins grew to have a profound and nuanced appreciation for what ‘home’ really means. To pay tribute to his parents and heighten awareness of the importance of adoption, Prins created a short film which debuted on Mother’s Day. Deeply touching and wonderfully personal, “Make a Heart a Home” (after the jump) explores, predominantly through imagery, Prins’ experience with home, family, identity, and love. In six short, powerful minutes, Prins allows his audience to share a deeper understanding of how he defines home, and how home has defined him.

From the very beginning of his career, the importance of bringing families home has impacted Prins immensely.

“I’m a real estate agent that finds homes for people all day,” he said. “But home means so much more to me. The first time I sold a home about three years ago, the guy looked at me and said, ‘Wow, I have a home now.’ And it struck a chord in me. I got emotional about it.”

But even Prins felt driven to do more, to give back, and to make a difference.

Two years ago, he co-hosted Adopt Fashion, a fashion show to benefit Operation Kindness and encourage pet adoption. “Make a Heart a Home” is an expansion of that determination to give more.

“It all goes back to me wanting to find people homes, in more than just one way. Two years later, it morphed into this short film. I just wanted to do something that was more personal, that had more meaning, and that wasn’t about the champagne and the flash.”

‘They Taught us What Home is’

The resulting film, is as much a tribute to his parents as it is an emotional education.

“I’m the youngest of five adopted children. My mom and dad taught us what a home was. That’s kind of what the film is about,” Prins said. “In foster care, I still didn’t always know what home was. There’s uncertainty there. Even when you’re adopted, you don’t really know what a home is, so you have to be taught what it is. They were so loving. They taught us what family is. What home is.”

Prins says he hopes to make more films like “Make a Heart.”

“I’m not a filmmaker. I’m no Steven Spielberg,” he said. “But it does tell a story and at the end, it kinda sets up for the next one. Hopefully I’ll do this every year for Mother’s Day until my story is complete. It might be a two or three-part story. Because there’s a lot to tell. There’s a lot of different parts of being adopted, the emotions, and everything that goes on as you grow older. It really is heartwarming.”

You can watch “Make a Heart a Home” above or on YouTube. For more information on fostering and adoption, please visit Hope Cottage.

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Heather Hunter is an accomplished freelance writer based in North Texas.

1 Comment

  1. Alex Prins on May 31, 2017 at 1:18 pm

    Thanks for an amazing article and for always supporting me in telling my story about being adopted!

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