You will never, ever, ever complain about your family again after watching the first 15 minutes of Family Affair. Chico David Colvard’s autobiographical documentary is loaded with repulsive bombshells — his physically and sexually abusive military father regularly raped his three sisters, sometimes at gunpoint, and on occasion all together at once.
Although Colvard was not himself molested, he approaches this project to unpack some baggage — most of it related to when, at age 10, he accidentally shotgunned sister Paula in the leg, sentencing her to a lifetime of hospital visits. The incident fractured the Colvard clan; soon after, his mother deserted her family for Jesus.
Eighteen years later, swimming through the trail of tears, Colvard arrives at something much more powerful, and far less reassuring, than a Hollywood ending. Hardly for the heavy-hearted.
