Exclusive Minnesota Premiere!
Friday, January 20, 2023
6 pm Doors // 7 pm Screening + Q & A with director Michael Glover Smith
$10 Advance General Admission // $13 At The Door
All Ages
Ticket Purchases are Final and Non-Refundable
This Chicago-made dramedy stars Wendy Robie (Twin Peaks) and Steppenwolf Theater Ensemble legend Francis Guinan as the parents of a family at a crossroads.
How will the Frank family handle separations, new romances, and empty nesting following the college graduation of Benji (The Walking Dead’s Cameron Scott Roberts), the youngest member of their clan? Time, love, family reunions and online proclivities test all of the characters in this ensemble film.
Written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Michael Glover Smith (Mercury in Retrograde). Relative has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes!
“Featuring a brilliant and eclectic cast of talented veterans and relative newcomers, this is a wickedly funny, occasionally poignant and authentic-to-its-core drama/comedy about three eventful days in the life of a totally relatable extended family." (***1/2 stars out of four)—Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
"His intimate, actor-driven dramas are set not merely in the real world, but in specific locales, with dialogue testifying to the fact that both the characters and the place have histories that still weigh on them in the present. The movies are ragged and imperfect, alternate awkward and sublime, but when they hit, they strike deep and tear you up." (*** stars out of four)—Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
"Crucial Viewing: Smith gracefully interweaves the lives of all four siblings, their liberal Baby Boomer parents, and a handful of other characters as they come together amiably and unhurriedly, employing the time-honored scenario of the big family gathering to consider how many of us live at the dawn of the 2020s." (*** stars out of four)—Ben Sachs, Cine-File
"One of the first great films I've seen in 2022...an impeccably cast, superbly directed and utterly captivating ode to the spontaneity and resilience of human connection"—Matt Fagerholm, Indie Outlook
**** 1/2 stars out of five—Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com
"The screenwriting is excellent with many lines you have to quote." (**** stars out of four)—Nancy Bishop, Third Coast Review
"A heartwarming and spectacularly acted visit with a loving but dysfunctional Chicago family, with some of the best ensemble performances you'll see. This is an indie gem not to be missed." (5 stars out of 5)—Christopher Lloyd, The Film Yap
"One of 2022's most rewarding indie cinema efforts." (3.5 stars out of 4)—Richard Propes, The Independent Critic
Michael Glover Smith's debut feature, Cool Apocalypse (2015), won awards at festivals across the U.S. and screened at Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center and Movies in the Parks' Onscreen Local Film Showcase before being released on home video by Emphasis Entertainment. His second feature, Mercury in Retrograde, starring Roxane Mesquida and Najarra Townsend, won the top prizes at the 2018 Tallahassee Film Festival and the 2017 Full Bloom Film Festival and was the subject of a rave review by the Chicago Sun-Times' Richard Roeper who wrote: "Smith has a deft touch for dialogue, creating six distinct characters who look and sound like people we know...a smart, funny, quietly effective and authentic slice of older millennial life." His third feature, the anthology film Rendezvous in Chicago, premiered at the 2018 Adirondack Film Festival and won the Best Film Comedy award at the 2019 George Lindsey Film Festival. Relative, His fourth feature, was produced by Chicago Film Project and stars Wendy Robie and Francis Guinan as the parents of a family at a crossroads. It won awards for acting at the Gasparilla International Film Festival and Festival of Cinema NYC in 2022 and received the widest theatrical release of any of Smith's movies to date: despite its "micro budget," it was the 23rd highest grossing film in the United States during its first week of release.
Smith was a recipient of the Gene Siskel Film Center's Star Filmmaker award in 2017 and made Newcity Chicago's "Film 50" list in 2018 and 2020 for being one of 50 individual's who "shape Chicago's film scene." He co-authored (with Adam Selzer) the book Flickering Empire: How Chicago Invented the U.S. Film Industry, a chronicle of the silent-movie era in Chicago that was published to acclaim by Columbia University Press in 2015. He teaches film history and aesthetics at several Chicago-area colleges and is the founder and sole author of the film blog White City Cinema.