Friday, May 7, 1:30 PM, Charles Theatre 3
Sunday, May 9, 4:30 PM, The Hall at Brown Center

Director: Mary Trunk

Cast: Mary Trunk, Maggie Trunk, John Trunk, Lizzie Trunk, Jenny Trunk, Andy Trunk, Julie Trunk

Country: U.S.
Year: 2003
Running Time: 78 minutes
Format: Beta SP

Survival and forgiveness are explored in this documentary that shows how tragedy and deprivation can have transforming effects on individual identity. In hardly more than a decade, the Trunk family moved from a life of seeming glamour, perfection and financial success to one of welfare and isolation. Within a year of moving his family of nine from Long Island, NY to Santa Barbara, CA, Jack Trunk announced to his wife, Paula, that he no longer loved her. He moved out, and a short time later, he lost his job. Devastated by the loss of her marriage and overwhelmed by the prospect of raising seven young children alone with no resources, Paula Trunk gave up hope. For four years the Trunk children were left to fend for themselves, often living without a phone, electricity, heat and very little food while their mother spent the majority of her time in bed, drunk. Just when life seemed unbearable, all seven Trunk children were rescued and taken in by relatives who already had three children and limited resources of their own. It was there that they had a second chance at becoming a family again. The Watershed focuses on how the Trunk’s were forced to deal with circumstances out of their control and still managed to remain a close family.

-- Skizz Cyzyk