© 2023 Sam Now, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ABOUT THE FILM
What do two film-obsessed brothers do to solve a family mystery? Using every video format imaginable, they make a movie as they travel thousands of miles looking for their missing mom. Stitching together 25 years of home videos and filling the gaps in the archive with play, SAM NOW is a mosaic of love, longing and loss, as well as an attempt to overcome intergenerational trauma.
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SYNOPSIS
Sam Harkness and his Seattle family are shocked and heartbroken when his mother suddenly disappears. Tracking cryptic clues of her whereabouts years later, Sam and his half brother head out on a West Coast road trip to try and find her. But solving the mystery of her disappearance is only the beginning of their story.
Through Sam’s 25-year quest for answers, the film explores intergenerational trauma and the turning points of family dysfunction and healing. As the narrative unfolds, we witness Sam coming of age as he tries to break free from a singular traumatic event, one that has replicated itself in his family for generations. Sobering revelations of personal growth blend with playful home movies and vibrant experimental filmmaking by brother and director Reed Harkness. A rare vulnerability reveals their journey as relatable to the modern American family.
We are there with Sam as he grows up, immersed in a unique archive of vintage films, home videos, intimate family interviews and vérité scenes from over the decades. We see him take a 2,000-mile road trip in search of answers. We learn of his mother Jois’ difficult past and why she left her kids. We feel the ripple effects of these individual decisions on family members including his brother Jared, father Randy and grandma Doris. And we discover the intertwined coping mechanisms that have contributed to a cycle of abandonment and avoidance.
The film balances heavy themes and emotional reckonings with youthful energy and optimistic spirit. These vivid moments serve as a contextual lens for the audience to reflect on their own personal lives, becoming a catalyst for open communication and fostering an atmosphere of honest understanding in our relationships.
Directed and Produced by REED HARKNESS | Produced and Edited by JASON REID
Runtime: 87 minutes | Genre: Long-term Documentary, Mystery, Coming-of-Age, Adventure
THE FILMMAKERS
Reed Harkness
Director / Producer / Cinematographer
Reed attended film school in his backyard and garage. At age 18, he began making a series of short films starring his younger brother Sam. This was the beginning of a project two decades in the making: Sam Now, a coming-of-age film that follows his brother from age 11 to 36. The film was selected by ITVS Open Call and is now in post-production. Reed previously directed the award-winning 30-minute documentary Forest on Fire about the 2017 wildfire in the Columbia River Gorge started by a teen who threw a lit firecracker off a hiking trail–stranding more than 150 hikers–and how, much like wildfire, a news story can spin out of control. He created House on Fire for Topic Studios, a series of short documentaries where people are given the spontaneous prompt that their house is on fire and told they have only two minutes to save just one thing. Reed recently participated in Gotham Week’s Project Market: Spotlight On Documentaries and was selected as a Film Independent Fellow. He was also awarded the Oregon Media Fellowship for 2021.
Jason Reid
Producer / Editor
Jason is an award-winning editor, producer and director. He directed and produced the Emmy award-winning Man Zou: Beijing to Shanghai and the Webby award-winning Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team, which aired on CNBC and ESPN. He also produced and edited the feature documentaries K2: Siren of the Himalayas and Evergreen: The Road to Legalization, which both streamed on Netflix, and Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey, which won 26 awards at film festivals. In 2020, he won his second Emmy for the short documentary The Original Voice of the Seahawks. He directed and produced Backfire: How to Destroy a Presidential Candidate and The Ultimate Upset for ESPN Films/FiveThirtyEight. He also edited the award-winning feature documentaries Crazywise and The Weight of Water and co-produced and edited Reed Harkness’ Forest on Fire. In 2020, he also edited the doc series House on Fire and directed three episodes of the travel/adventure doc series, The Wizard’s Eye. Jason participated in Gotham Week’s Project Market: Spotlight On Documentaries and was selected as a Film Independent Fellow for the ITVS funded feature documentary, Sam Now. He is also producer of Super Frenchie, a feature documentary that aired on National Geographic in 2022.
Darren Lund
Editor
Darren Lund edited Sam Now with producer/editor Jason Reid. Darren is an editor on many award- winning films including Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team, Man Zou: Beijing to Shanghai, K2: Siren of the Himalayas, Evergreen: The Road to Legalization, The Finish Line and Mr. Irrelevant. He edited Forest on Fire, Backfire: How to Destroy a Presidential Candidate and The Ultimate Upset for ESPN Films/FiveThirtyEight, edited the feature documentary Crazywise and the award- winning feature documentary Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey. Darren directed and edited three of the nine episodes of the travel/adventure doc series, The Wizard’s Eye, Sam Now and a few other projects that will be released later this year.
Heather Hawksford
Co-Producer
Heather is a mother of four, an activist and an artist. After working as a social worker for years, she left the field to do portrait photography and then documentary filmmaking. Heather has produced two award-winning films and co-directed a docu-series called House on Fire which highlights four vastly different communities in Oregon, showing how our values align more than we realize. She co-founded the roving artist residency program Motherist that explores how motherhood informs and shapes our art, and she believes raising kind, self-aware humans is a revolutionary act.
Adam Spiro Brown
Co-Producer / Music Supervisor
Adam is a producer, writer, editor and music supervisor of diverse creative projects. He won a Webby Award as producer of Sonicsgate: Requiem for a Team. He produced Webby Awards Honorees The Finish Line and Mr. Irrelevant, as well as Backfire: How to Destroy a Presidential Candidate, The Ultimate Upset and Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey. He has produced numerous commercials, music videos and short films including Mackie Driven Artists and Something Soon. Adam lives in Seattle, where he runs the production company Lucid Visual Media.
CREDITS
A HA/HA Production
A Co-Production of ITVS and 2R PRODUCTIONS
Directed and Produced by REED HARKNESS
Produced and Edited by JASON REID
Edited by DARREN LUND
Co-Produced by HEATHER HAWKSFORD, ADAM SPIRO BROWN
Original Score by ROGER NEILL
Cinematography by REED HARKNESS
Executive Producers LOIS VOSSEN, SALLY JO FIFER
Executive Producers ANDY McDONOUGH, COLIN HARPER PLANK
Executive Producers DAVID J. CORNFIELD, D.D. WIGLEY
Supervising Producer MICHAEL KINOMOTO
Consulting Editors CAITLYN GREENE, ALEX O’FLINN
Consulting Writer JON RAYMOND
Featuring music by:
THE SONICS
THE WAILERS
DEAD MOON
SMOG
PORCELAIN RAFT
KATH BLOOM
STYROFOAM
TEENGENERATE
R.C. LOVE AND THE GOODNESS GRACIOUS
More credits and info on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes