More than a film, it’s Another Child

The documentary Another Child is a film that makes this world a better place, and a perfect example that through art, we can bring light to darkness and begin to heal old wounds.

The film introduces Leanna Borsellino and her quest to revisit the scene of a crime with her mother Cynthia—facing the now abandoned childhood home where Leanna was repeatedly molested and sexually abused as a child by an older cousin. Speaking of her intent to connect with her mother, the filmmaker says: “what happened in this house has put a wall between us, making this film is my attempt to tear down that wall” over the visuals of the two sneaking into the abandoned structure. It is a powerful and telling beginning, a mother helping her daughter sneak into a dark place from the past to come to terms with what the present has to offer. The negotiation is laid out between the fimmaker and the viewer…except there’s much more than any of us prepared for—much more, and more necessary than any of us would have imagined.

The film is an emotional roller-coaster, and reveals the essence of documentary filmmaking at its best for the film takes on a life of its own through the journey of discovery and sharing. It is by Borsellino’s bravery to share her multiple long-endured traumas that ultimately so much more becomes revealed to the viewer. Whereas we begin the film with the notion that we are going to follow Borsellino’s path of healing, which to a large degree we do, we actually end up becoming witness to something that is much more than the filmmaker’s own past. It’s quite telling when Borsellino states that she made this film for her mother to understand her more, yet she ended up understanding her mother more. This is exemplary of how one’s sharing of experiencing sexual trauma can encourage others to step in and share their stories as well, building a community of survivors who together can help one another not only heal, but raise awareness and prevent others in their communities from going through what they’ve been through.
For the faint of heart and survivors of sexual violence and abuse, the film may come with a trigger warning for there is imagery and narration of horrific gut-wrenching events that simply put are heart-breaking. And for the most part, it takes place within familial boundaries which makes this piece so much the more disturbing but also, important. For family secrets function much like Schopenhauer’s cat, as they are both dead and alive until the lid is opened and the truth is revealed. And almost ever family, keeps secrets hidden under a lid.
Another Child shows us it is in seeking such truths that other truths are revealed, and the only way to truly begin a process of healing is by an authentic and honest willingness to lay bare the hidden secrets that eat away at one’s soul. The details within and the ending do not deserve to be told by a reviewer, for the messages and narratives told by the victims themselves are always much powerful when they speak of it themselves. Ask not to yourselves what this film can do for you, but what you can do for this film—share. Share the darkest secrets that have bound you for decades, share what you fear may break down the sanctimony of familial respect, and see what happens. The film will teach you that there may two options for you: an empty chair without those willing to listen and be; or if you’re willing, a chain of holding hands believing that tomorrow will be better, together side by side and hand in hand, aware and conscious that through the darkest of cracks, light will seep through.

Another Child is at times raw, but so are the raw family stories within. The film’s close-ups are a bit too shaky at times, but so are the inner turmoils at those emotional moments. The film’s sound is a bit off, but it sure beats a painful silence. At the end of the day, it is perfect in its imperfections. It is perfect in its seeking, and the way the journey reveals itself on the path of righteousness and paves the road for future generations, ensuring that Another Child will not go through what Borsellino and members of her family have had to endure for so long. Kudos to Cynthia Borsellino and her beautiful voice, and her gracious songwriting which when put in the context of the stories shared become empowering tools for her to garner strength and move on to help others heal. It is quite fitting that the tracks are mostly Cynthia’s voice either a capella or with the guitar, lullabies that put to sleep the dark traumas and nightmares revealed in the film. The filmmaker’s past filmmaking motives and clips from them add greatly to how she’s been able to cope with her pain and suffering, and her poetic writing at a young age goes to prove the power of poetry as an art form, an empowering tool to take on the world and its problems through artistic expression—an art-form that can take darkness and turn it into light.