-By Doris Toumarkine
For movie details, please click here.
When we first encounter
Off and Running’s gifted high-school
track star (and the doc’s co-writer) Avery Klein-Cloud, it is clear
that hers is a happy, comfortable but most unusual home. She
communicates warmly and easily with her lesbian parents Tovah, an
Israeli émigré, and Travis, a blonde Midwesterner, and with her
older mixed-race brother Rafi and much younger Korean brother
Zay-Zay.
But above this rainbow coalition, dark clouds are forming: Avery,
with the support of her parents, strives to make meaningful contact
for the first time with her birth mother, who lives in Austin,
Texas. The mother’s letters are kind but fail to indicate a need or
desire to connect.
Avery’s preoccupation with making this connection is really a
symptom of the identity crisis that is rolling in. And no wonder.
She is a practicing Jew who was educated in a Jewish elementary
school and had little contact with the African-American
community.
When her beloved brother Rafi goes off to Princeton, Avery, who
had been on (ahem) track to land a sports scholarship to college,
becomes more vulnerable to the personal issues of race and
identity. She assimilates into a lively African-American crowd,
starts skipping school, lets her track skills slip, and becomes
estranged from Tovah and Travis. She moves out, grows closer to
boyfriend Prince and becomes pregnant. But the good job of parental
upbringing finally pays off as Avery, while never able to meet her
birth mother, gets her life back together.
The film provides some home-movie footage of the family’s earlier
days and makes a detour across the country, where Tovah and Travis
are able to tie the knot.
Off and Running benefits mightily from its very likeable
subjects, Avery and Rafi especially and the other family members.
But the doc also frustrates: It is fuzzy about the upshot of
Avery’s pregnancy, her flare-ups with her parents occur off-camera,
and her latest triumph is conveyed by way of an end title
card.
Production credits are fine, photography and music most notably.
And Avery’s dilemmas and her atypical crazy-quilt family command
attention.
Film Review: Off and Running
Nice coming-of-age doc about an African-American teen who shares a Brooklyn brownstone with the white Jewish lesbian parents who adopted her and two adopted siblings. After the usual brief and de rigueur theatrical stop, film lands on PBS’ “P.O.V.” later this year.
Jan 29, 2010
-By Doris Toumarkine
For movie details, please click here.
When we first encounter
Off and Running’s gifted high-school track star (and the doc’s co-writer) Avery Klein-Cloud, it is clear that hers is a happy, comfortable but most unusual home. She communicates warmly and easily with her lesbian parents Tovah, an Israeli émigré, and Travis, a blonde Midwesterner, and with her older mixed-race brother Rafi and much younger Korean brother Zay-Zay.
But above this rainbow coalition, dark clouds are forming: Avery, with the support of her parents, strives to make meaningful contact for the first time with her birth mother, who lives in Austin, Texas. The mother’s letters are kind but fail to indicate a need or desire to connect.
Avery’s preoccupation with making this connection is really a symptom of the identity crisis that is rolling in. And no wonder. She is a practicing Jew who was educated in a Jewish elementary school and had little contact with the African-American community.
When her beloved brother Rafi goes off to Princeton, Avery, who had been on (ahem) track to land a sports scholarship to college, becomes more vulnerable to the personal issues of race and identity. She assimilates into a lively African-American crowd, starts skipping school, lets her track skills slip, and becomes estranged from Tovah and Travis. She moves out, grows closer to boyfriend Prince and becomes pregnant. But the good job of parental upbringing finally pays off as Avery, while never able to meet her birth mother, gets her life back together.
The film provides some home-movie footage of the family’s earlier days and makes a detour across the country, where Tovah and Travis are able to tie the knot.
Off and Running benefits mightily from its very likeable subjects, Avery and Rafi especially and the other family members. But the doc also frustrates: It is fuzzy about the upshot of Avery’s pregnancy, her flare-ups with her parents occur off-camera, and her latest triumph is conveyed by way of an end title card.
Production credits are fine, photography and music most notably. And Avery’s dilemmas and her atypical crazy-quilt family command attention.
