Back in 2000, three teenage boys lost their mother, Jois. It’s usually the rebellious teen who runs away, but the tables got turned in this true-life mystery. Jois left her job and almost everyone she knew without a note. Initially, it was assumed she just went on a spontaneous vacation. Later, she sent a letter that stated she was fine but wanted to sever communications. No one understood why.
Ironically, it was her stepson, Reed, who is also the family videographer, who wondered why no one else seemed too curious. He wanted answers. After almost three years, he proposed that they make a movie of their attempt to find her.
They agree and begin the research. Jois had been a hostess at Ray’s Boathouse, my favorite Seattle restaurant, on Puget Sound. It turned out her manager had been her confidante and the boys get a name. They began an Internet search that took them on a road trip heading south for California. They stopped to visit Jois’s family in southern Oregon. None of the relatives there, including Jois’s mother, had heard from her since she abruptly disappeared.
The real magic of this film is done through the editing by Darren Lund and Jason Reid. They weave a spotlight on Sam, the youngest of Jois’s sons, who was just starting his freshman year of high school when his mom went AWOL. Spanning 25 years of home videos and eventual film, Reed, with his editors, has created a psychological study, not only of Sam, but also of his stepmother.
When they arrive at Jois’s old family home, they interview her family and record that when Joyce was six months old, she had been abandoned by her Japanese mother. She had been the result of her mother’s union with an American in Japan. Eventually, she ended up being adopted by a conservative southern Oregon family.
We learn that Jois ended up marrying, having a son and getting a divorce. Then, she married a second time to a Seattle area teacher, Randy Harkness, who had also been previously married and had a son (Reed). They blended their family and then had Sam.
Even though they ended up separated or divorced, Jois was seen as a great mother who stayed in constant touch with Sam and the other sons in the family. They saw her as a fun, joyful, helpful, beautiful person.
But it’s Reed’s remarkable cache of home footage that helps explain, through cinéma vérité, the effect Jois’s departure had on Sam, who ends up working in social work trying to heal other people’s family problems. It is also a thoughtful record examining Jois. Why she left, where she ended up and what her goals were are revealed. At the same time, the residual damage she wreaked on her family are also laid bare, without commentary.
Art can be cathartic and therapeutic. It can help us escape, explore or heal. Reed Harkness has laid out his family’s mystery for the world to see and ponder. Cinéma vérité, without judgement, leaves us pondering ways we can best manage a drive for self-actualization while also remaining responsible.
Credits
Director/Writer: Reed Harkness
Executive Producers: David J. Cornfield, Sally Jo Fifer, Lois Vossen and D.D. Wigley
Producer: Reed Harkness and Jason Feid
Supervising Producer: Michael Kinomoto
Writing Consultants: Heather Hawksford, Darren Lund, Jonathan Raymond and Jason Reid
Featuring: Doris Harkness, Jared Harkness, Jois Harkness, Randy Harkness, Reed Harkness, Sam Harkness
Music: Roger Neill
Cinematography: Reed Harkness
Editors: Darren Lund and Jason Reid
Website: https://samnowmovie.com
Release: June 6 VOD Launch
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