Off and Running

About The Film

The pitfalls of a multicultural adoptive family are given an emotionally honest treatment in OFF AND RUNNING. Given up at birth, Avery, an African-American teen, is raised in a loving Brooklyn home by an observant Jewish lesbian couple. Her uniquely diverse family, dubbed "the United Nations," includes an older mixed-race brother, Rafi, and a younger Korean brother, Samuel. When Avery decides to write to her birth mother in Texas, the exchange spurs a full-blown identity crisis. A gifted runner, Avery's plans to attend college on a track and field scholarship look increasing dim as she starts to stray from school, home and family. With her mothers at a loss as to how to reach her, Avery struggles with self-awareness and displacement as she seeks an understanding of her black and Jewish roots. Voted a Top Ten Audience Favorite at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.