My Flesh and Blood

Never have I watched a film that I have felt has seriously changed my outlook on life or made me want to go on-line and write a comment on it like I am now. Director Jonathan Karsh created a wonderful film, but what's more is that it's real. This isn't a Hollywood script; it's the story of a caring lady and her life as a mother (Susan Tom) of 13 adopted children with various mental and physical disabilities. The personalities of the children come alive in the movie. Once it starts, you all ready feel like you've known this family for a long time. It really does make you look at your life and realize that your problems are nothing compared to the problems these kids and Ms. Tom deal with everyday, yet they live their lives full of laughter and love. Very gripping and touching film.

One previous review named inktastesbitter accused Susan Tom of exploiting the foster-care system and being in it for the money. I can't believe this. There are many, far easier ways to make money than having a 24/7 job caring for special needs kids. We can speculate whether Ms. Tom is, in caring for so many children, trying to fill some unanswered psychological need of hers. But that is surely pointless since the good she is doing seems to me undeniable.

This is a marvelous, provocative film that deserves the widest audience possible. I am a college professor of philosophy. "The human condition" is of course one of the subjects of philosophy; I show this film to my students for all its insights into the joys, challenges, and heartbreaks of the human condition

Effective documentary about a marginalized woman (Susan Tom) who is raising some of the most unfortunate but extraordinary children you will ever encounter. Some are severely burnt (Faith). One has cystic fibrosis (Joe), and a bunch of complex personal problems. Several are limbless. The list goes on. The children are a handful, but Susan's unlimited reserve of strength and compassion is what has given these children meaningful lives.

Susan isn't always depicted beneath her saintly halo. In one scene, she, like any human being, loses her patience with her birth daughter and comes across as harsh. In others, she fights exhaustion. The film is about Susan, but it is also about her charges and their own personal struggles to simply survive. Some of the episodes we're shown are pretty heartbreaking and one boy's struggle to live (Anthony) is so horrible you can only marvel at his tenacity.

The film has a no-nonsense tone and never becomes too tabloid or too much of a freak show (which would have been highly inappropriate under the circumstances). Director Jonathan Karsh sprinkles a little visual poetry on the pictures and employs an occasional voice-over.

Strong stuff. And fascinating.

If not for bumping into the filmmaker at another SXSW Film Festival screening, I would have dismissed this as potentially a tear-jerker freak show. The synopsis did not grab me. Mr. Karsh did--he is as passionate as his subject matter.

Don't make the mistake I almost made--see this and prepare to meet some of the most indelibly etched characters life has ever created on screen. HBO/Cinemax has apparently agreed to pick this up for showing in late 2003/early 2004 so you should have a chance to see it there, but I really hope it finds release on DVD.

Karsh creates and incredibly moving portrait of a family like no other, built on the solid foundation of one amazing mother. With an engaging, suspenseful dramatic arc that could not possibly have been scripted, the film shows laughter, fear, anger, rage, love, frustration and difficult resolution. As in any family, there are no easy answers to life's daily challenges. With unique access and a "cast" of dreams, it is an absolutely unforgettable slice of life that should make each of us aware of how much we have for which to be thankful. Part documentary, part cinema verite, it is 100% engaging till the last frame. See it and prepare to meet the Toms.

This film is so painful to watch, but you must. What an indictment of our society and how little we value children. It doesn't take a documentary in a third world country, when there is plenty of horrific child neglect in the richest country in the world. Why should Susan, the heroine of this story, a mother who adopted upwards of 13 significantly sick or disabled children, be such an anomaly? Such a curiosity? Why isn't the system giving her and her children every possible support and resource they need to make their lives livable? I will never be able to shake this story off, nor do I want to. Especially with the epidemic of childhood neuro- and immuno- disorders that have erupted over the last decade or so, thanks to the U.S. pharmaceutical industry and the CDC who cavalierly allowed mercury to be used to prolong the shelf life of the multitude of vaccines our children are required to have from their first hour of life.