Family Portrait (feature drama, in post-production, digital video, color, sound)
FIDLab AirFrance Prize 2022, Austin Film Society Feature Film Grant 2022, US in Poland 2022 New Horizons Award
“One doesn’t need to believe in the supernatural to know that the family is a haunted structure.” -Mark Fisher
Set at the dawn of Covid-19, Family Portrait follows a big Texas family on a morning when they have planned a picture for their annual Christmas Card at their Guadalupe river property. As the film progresses, one of the daughters, Katy, and her Polish boyfriend, Olek, become increasingly anxious to take the picture, as they must head to the airport afterwards. As Katy seeks to find her suddenly vanished mother and assemble her family for the photo op, her family, spiraling into idle conversations, dispersed amongst the sprawling property, appear to resist any attempt to gather. Historically, family portraits exist as an endeavor to immortalize the family institution, yet, according to Roland Barthes, in this futile attempt one also realizes one's mortality. In Family Portrait, as the family falls away from one another and as Katy loses herself, it is as if death is what this family cannot come to terms with.
Director: Lucy Kerr
Producer: Insufficient Funds, NSF, Megan Pickrell
Director of Photography: Lidia Nikonova
Written by: Lucy Kerr and Karlis Bergs
Editing: Lucy Kerr and Karlis Bergs
Production Sound Mixer: Andrew Siedenburg, Nikolay Antonov
Supervising Sound Editor: Andrew Siedenburg
Sound Design: Andrew Siedenburg, Nikolay Antonov
Re-recording Mixer: Nikolay Antonov
Featuring: Deragh Campbell, Chris Galust, Rachel Alig, Katie Folger, Robert Salas, Silvana Jakich, Veronica Cinibulk, Ed Hattaway, Vanessa Cetodal, Christian Huey, Les Weiler, David McGuff, Miriam Spumpkin, and Luke, Gray, Rhett, and Magnolia Picarazzi