Prodigal Sons

A high school reunion sparks a wave of confrontations and revelations in this courageous and sometimes shocking documentary by Kimberley Reed. It's easy to share the filmmaker's worries as she heads back home to Helena, Montana, seeing as most of the folks there last saw her when she was still Paul, the fresh-faced teenaged quarterback she was before her gender transition. More worrisome is the change she witnesses in her adopted brother Marc, who has suffered from neurological and behavioural problems since suffering a head injury at the age of 21. Reed's quest to discover the truth about his birth parents also yields a few twists, which, like much of Prodigal Sons, are truly stranger than fiction.

"I started out making a film about my adopted brother’s journey to discover his new lineage. It was undeniably a great story, a real-life fairy tale. I also felt guilty that life had been easy for me but not for Marc. I imagined that by celebrating his amazing tale I could ease his pain, and maybe heal our relationship. I thought I’d be making a film about the second chapter in our lives. Little did I know we weren’t done with the first.

"Anyone who has met Marc will tell you that you can’t tell his story without telling mine. Our rivalry growing up was the most important dynamic in his life, and remains so to this day. So I knew I’d end up in this film, but I had no idea it would become the personal journey it did. When you change your sex, you get tremendous pressure to bury your past, to let it disappear like the ‘M’ that used to be on your drivers license. If you pass well in your new gender, the pressure is even stronger, especially from other transgender people who see passing as the Holy Grail. Returning to your past, much less reveling in it, is unthinkable. Before making this film I shared that view."
--Kimberly Reed