Lucille Juliano and Bob Eagleson with transgender "Prodigal Sons" director Kimberly Reed at Cinema Village in Manhattan on Saturday evening, February 27th (photo by Sam)
by Sam Juliano
Paul McKerrow was the Helena, Montana high school football team’s golden boy quarterback back in 1985, and graduated class valedictorian. He was voted ‘Most Likely to Succeed’ by his classmates, and was the pride and joy of his popular physician father and school teacher mom. After attending school in San Francisco and experimenting with transgenderism, Paul decided to transition to full womanhood, and she returned years later as ‘Kimberly Reed’ to her hometown to attend her class reunion, where family members, friends and classmates got their first look at the post-op woman. While this is the central ‘event’ in the moving and intermittantly provocative new documentary, Prodigal Sons, directed by Ms. Reed, the film’s most fascinating thread is the difficult relationship Reed endures with her older adopted brother Marc, who is prone to violent outbursts after a serious injury, that necessitated removal of a small section of his brain. While Reed sought acceptance in her new identity, Marc had a hard time coping with his brother’s new persona, especially after becoming more unstable.
Ironically, Reed’s school mates were surprisingly fine with her transition, and most had known beforehand that ‘he’ had become a ‘she’ a few years before, after Reed’s mother hosted a tea gathering at her home to make the formal announcement. Kimberly’s father, a successful ophthalmologist, had also known of the change before his own passing, though the conception of this film occured afterwards. (more…)
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