Sons
What makes a man? How does a father break the cycle of the emotionally avoidant parent that he learned from his own dad and show his young son affection? How does he teach his child to avoid toxic masculine traits when the boy can see that behavior modeled everywhere? Those are the questions that plague filmmaker Justin Simms when his son Jude is born. Sons is his engrossing attempt to answer those queries during the first years of Jude’s life. Simms sneaks in statistics from time to time and interviews other dads that share his concerns, but the documentary is largely observational, as Simms parents a growing Jude. Moving scenes capture Simms in conversation with his father Randy, the older man recalling how he was parented and how he parented Justin. His hope is that Justin will form a more affectionate, emotional bond with Jude—from the evidence Sons so absorbingly presents, he has.
Director/s
Justin Simms
Justin Simms
JUSTIN SIMMS is a Newfoundland and Labrador filmmaker. His first feature film, Down to the Dirt (2008), received the Best Atlantic Feature and Best Screenplay awards at the Atlantic Film Festival. His feature film Away from Everywhere (2016) had its world premiere at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival as part of Telefilm Canada’s Perspectives Canada program. His non-fiction credits include Hard Light (2011), Danny (2014), and the short Hand.Line.Cod(2016), which premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
Tickets
MULTICULTURAL CENTER OF MARIN