True/False Films

Prodigal Sons

In person: Kimberly Reed

If Kim Reed had simply set out to document her coming-of-age in western Montana, departure for the big city and eventual homecoming at her high-school reunion, it would have made a fine film. Had she chosen to weave in the story of her adopted brother, whose checkered youth and a tragic injury left him with severe physical and emotional scars, well, that could have been all the richer. But Prodigal Sons isn't content to tell a story like any other film. Revelations fly and the plots twist from intimate family portraiture to a speculative history of the love child of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. It's a potent cocktail of gender and genetics and Reed faces the challenge of telling a deeply personal story with uncommon courage. (Plays with A Transgender Childhood, a Third Coast International Audio Festival short.) (DW)