I’m looking forward to seeing my first film at Pacific Cinematheque, a non-profit arts center that showcases local films, as well as the best in international cinema, film festival offerings, and now a monthly even developed in partnership with the Institute of Mental Health, and UBC Department of Psychiatry to promote education on issues surrounding mental health.
In addition to the movie screening, there are presentations and panel discussions following films shown every third Wednesday of each month.
June 17th will be the Vancouver premiere of Prodigal Sons, a documentary by Kimberly Reed, described by Variety as “Compelling…Tennessee Williams looks like Sesame Street compared to this.”
“A fascinating study of family dynamics…”
With that, and the old black and white photo of three cheerful looking kids in a family portrait, which for me is always an ominous foreboding of tribulations ahead.
The full excerpt from Pacific Cinametheque’s program:
A fascinating study of family dynamics, Prodigal Sons traces the history and disparate trajectories of three brothers who grew up in Helena, Montana, in the 1970s. Mac, the oldest, was adopted; his new parents, the McKerrows, thought they weren’t able to have biological children, and then quickly proceeded to have two: Paul and Todd. Paul, the middle child, was a golden boy: excellent student, captain for the football team, class valedictorian. Marc, held back in kindergarten and always under the shadow of his younger brother, had a harder time. He dropped out of school, was in prison at 19, and at 21 suffered a serious brain injury; given to emotional instability, he seems never to have gotten over his resentment towards Paul. But Paul had his own demons to contend with: After graduation , he moved to San Francisco and became a woman, transitioning into Kimberly Reed, director of this documentary. Prodigal Sons opens as Kimberly travels home to Helena for a high school reunion – her first time back as a woman, and her first visit in years with Marc. Add to the mix the recent discovery that Marc’s biological grandparents are Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. And that a family Christmas with youngest brother Todd, a gay man now working as an architect, ends with a 911 call to police…
