IN SEARCH OF OUR FATHERS Cinema's Legacy

Following the screening, watch a special conversation with director Marco Williams moderated by AFI Festivals Senior Programmer Ken Jacobson.

About a third of the way through Marco Williams’ deeply moving 1992 personal documentary about his search for the father who was never a part of his life, a relative tells him, “Our family is notorious for lying.” Marco replies: “That’s what I’m discovering.” Over several years, as Marco attempts to connect with his father, he travels back-and-forth between Boston, Harlem, Philadelphia and Paris, probing his extended family for answers. What emerges is a family full of secrets. Finally, after multiple attempts to pin down his mother, who left the U.S. to make a life for herself in Paris, the secrets begin to unravel and a deeper truth reveals itself: Marco’s search for his father may be more about coming to grips with the mother he loves than the father he never knew. –Ken Jacobson