Prodigal Sons

A raw and provocative examination of one Montana family’s struggle to come to terms with its past, present and future in spite of intense sibling rivalries and twists of plot and gender so unforeseeable the film once again proves Tolstoy’s rule that while “all happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Synopsis (WARNING: SPOILER ALERT): Returning to her hometown in Montana for the first time since her sex change, transgender filmmaker Kimberly Reed wants to document her coming out at her high school reunion. She also hopes to make peace with her classmate and long-estranged, brain-damaged adopted brother, Marc. Things do not go as planned. Marc learns his birth grandparents were Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth and Kimberly travels with him to Croatia on the invitation of Welles’s longtime companion Oja Kodar. The siblings grow closer but upon returning to the States old resentment resurfaces, compounded by Kimberly’s still inchoate reconciliation with her past and Marc’s violent mood swings and personality changes, leaving the family valiantly coping with a crisis.

Winner of Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival’s FIPRESCI prize, Best of the Fest Audience Award at the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival 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.

"Superb documentary filmmaking…no one could make this believable if it were fiction." - David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle

"Exceptional…you will never think of Rosebud the same way again." - Ed Gonzalez, Village Voice

"Revealing and moving…not to be missed." - Erica Marcus, Bay Times

"Pretty amazing…takes you to some remarkable places." - Todd McCarthy, Variety

"I saw a film I can’t get out of my head. . . .This documentary is an uncanny, haunting experience." - David Thompson, The Guardian

"A sweeping family saga that spans the globe and uncovers disturbing secrets as well as some remarkable connections…gathers a Shakespearian momentum, and which could make even the stoniest among us weep." - Oxford American