PRODIGAL SONS: A Film by Kimberly Reed
Kim Reed, voiceover in PRODIGAL SONS: "My brother had been in the hospital for a week and I went to visit him. It's weird to visit your brother in a mental hospital.. And, being transgender, I was technically more mentally ill than he was. Marc didn't have a diagnosis yet, but officially I did. I'd experienced so much frustration with the body I was born into, but I always knew I could rely on my mind. Now Marc was losing his."
This film is so much more than what I expected, i.e. a transgendered woman returning to her hometown in Montana (from New York) for the first time since her transition. Though her family and friends are surprisingly (and touchingly) accepting, she has to deal with her adoptive brother who suffers from a traumatic brain injury and severe, often dangerous mood swings, several of which disturbingly appear on screen. Also, though Kim initially appears to have made peace with herself, it becomes evident later on that she's never fully dealt with the ghost of the person she used to be. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Available on Netflix.
Amazon description: Returning home to a small town in Montana for her high school reunion, filmmaker Kimberly Reed hopes for reconciliation with her long-estranged adopted brother, Marc. But along the way she uncovers stunning revelations, including Marc's blood relationship with Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, intense sibling rivalries and unforeseeable twists of plot and gender that forces them to face challenges no one could imagine.
Winner of Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival's FIPRESCI prize, Jury Award for Best Documentary at Newfest, and Special Jury Prizes for Bravery in Filmmaking at the Florida and Nashville Film Festivals, Prodigal Sons is a raw and provocative examination of one family's struggle to come to terms with its past and present.
This film is so much more than what I expected, i.e. a transgendered woman returning to her hometown in Montana (from New York) for the first time since her transition. Though her family and friends are surprisingly (and touchingly) accepting, she has to deal with her adoptive brother who suffers from a traumatic brain injury and severe, often dangerous mood swings, several of which disturbingly appear on screen. Also, though Kim initially appears to have made peace with herself, it becomes evident later on that she's never fully dealt with the ghost of the person she used to be. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Available on Netflix.
Amazon description: Returning home to a small town in Montana for her high school reunion, filmmaker Kimberly Reed hopes for reconciliation with her long-estranged adopted brother, Marc. But along the way she uncovers stunning revelations, including Marc's blood relationship with Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, intense sibling rivalries and unforeseeable twists of plot and gender that forces them to face challenges no one could imagine.
Winner of Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival's FIPRESCI prize, Jury Award for Best Documentary at Newfest, and Special Jury Prizes for Bravery in Filmmaking at the Florida and Nashville Film Festivals, Prodigal Sons is a raw and provocative examination of one family's struggle to come to terms with its past and present.