My Flesh and Blood

The documentary follows a year in the life of the Tom family in California. The mother, Susan Tom, has adopted eleven children, most of whom live with serious illnesses or disabilities. Jonathan Karsh settles inside the house and shows the ordinary: meals, school, hospital appointments, arguments, jokes. What stands out is that he handles this material neither through pity nor through heroism; he turns nobody into an inspirational story and does not hide death either. Susan Tom’s house is not presented as a monument to sacrifice but as a place that works and struggles. Karsh had first met the family for a local television programme. The film won both the audience award and the directing award for documentary at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, went on to take an Emmy for best documentary, and was broadcast on HBO in 2004.