Little Brother

Two brothers drive across the American West attempting to reconcile past traumas and forge a new bond in Sheridan O'Donnell's deeply moving feature debut. Jake (Daniel Diemer) and his brother Pete (Phililp Ettinger) pile into a busted-up van, headed from Albuquerque to Seattle. Pete has just attempted suicide for the umpteenth time and his concerned parents (JK Simmons) have recruited Jake to drive Pete home for a family intervention. The brothers are at once uneasy friends and sworn rivals; they're not just oil and water—they're fire and gasoline.  And now they've got 1,400 miles to go and nowhere to hide. As heartfelt as it is hilarious and inspired by O'Donnell's own friend who died by suicide, Little Brother is a profoundly honest portrait of mental health and a film about the power of family and the long and winding journey to real empathy. (Atlanta Film Festival)