Siblings

Directed by Audrey Gordon

Eleven-year-old Liberty is one of 13 siblings, each of whom lives in a separate foster family across the US. She looks forward to seeing some of them once a year, at a summer camp for natural brothers and sisters divided in the care system. For one week only, she'll reunite with a few of her biological kin and take on symbolic relationships, including one with 18-year-old Brandi, who is reuniting with her own natural sister. Filmmaker Audrey Gordon takes up both girls' perspectives, following Liberty and reading Brandi's diary entries, gently capturing the younger one's open heart and the elder's knowing experience of these precious shared days. Without pretense, cynicism or expectation, each child fully welcomes the other, recreating missed milestones like birthday celebrations and makeup sessions, soaking up the affection that will last them the year through. Thoroughly moving, this tender chronicle illuminates even the most solitary soul's deep need for familial connection.