PRODIGAL SONS
Documentary Competition
(USA, 2008, 86 mins)
HDCAM
Directed By: Kimberly Reed
Producers: Kimberly Reed, John Keitel
Executive Producers: Robert Hawk, Gail Silva
Director of Photography: John Keitel
Editor: Shannon Kennedy, Kimberly Reed
Co-Producer: Louise Rosen
Debut filmmaker Kimberly Reed dives headfirst into an unflinching portrait of her family that is absolutely engrossing and marks her coming-out, in more ways than one. Returning home to a small town in Montana for her high school reunion, Reed hopes for reconciliation with her long-estranged adopted brother. But along the way PRODIGAL SONS uncovers stunning revelations, including a blood relationship with Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, intense sibling rivalries and unforeseeable twists of plot and gender. Reed's rare access delicately reveals not only the family's most private moments, but also an epic scope as the film travels from Montana to Croatia, from jail cell to football field, from deaths to births. Kim Reed’s compassionate vérité style of filmmaking captures the lives of her family in such an organic way that their exceptional and challenging stories puncture the surface of our expectations. Questions of sexual orientation, identity, severe trauma and family love are effortlessly explored as the subjects freely open up their lives to the camera. Raw, emotional and provocative, PRODIGAL SONS offers a moving, illuminating examination of one family’s struggle to come to terms with its past and present. It's sure to open both your mind and your heart.
–Shaz Bennett
Screening Schedule
Saturday, November 1st 9:30pm
ArcLight Hollywood 8
Monday, November 3rd 12:45pm
ArcLight Hollywood 9