Red Without Blue

A trio of filmmakers (Brooke Sebold, Benita Sills, and Todd Sills) share directing credit for Red Without Blue—which won this year's Slamdance Film Festival Audience Award for nonfiction filmmaking—a documentary following the lives of twentysomething identical twin brothers Mark and Alex Farley. Growing up in a Christian Scientist home in Missoula, MT, the Farleys' world was rocked at the age of 11 when their parents divorced. Later, during their teen years, the boys acknowledged they were gay, creating more family division, and their bond was so powerful that they once planned a double suicide. Over time, however, the brothers drifted apart, first emotionally and then geographically: Mark currently lives in San Francisco, where he is immersed in art studies, while Alex resides in New York, where he's living as Clair—his transgendered identity (he's planning for a sex change operation in the near future). The Alex-into-Clair transformation has frayed the fraternal bond, with Mark viewing his sibling's actions as a betrayal of their unique relationship. A deeply moving and frequently disturbing examination of the fragility of emotions that hold families together, Red Without Blue benefits from the candidness of the Farleys concerning their tumultuous lives. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)