I was really interested in his personality. “I have this idea, I’ve got to do it now.” And so, I was just looking around, and it’s like, “Okay, there’s Sam, he’s sitting there on the floor, playing videogames.

REED HARKNESS: As a teen, I was very impulsive. They then sit down for an exclusive interview about the film.ĪSSIGNMENT X: When you just started filming Sam, when he was eleven, was he your only brother – since you have others – who was willing to let you film him, or was there something about Sam that made you feel he was particularly film-worthy? Reed Harkness, Sam Harkness, and their paternal aunt Cindy Harkness Howard have just done a Q&A panel for SAM NOW at PBS’s portion of the Winter 2023 Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour in Pasadena, California. What they found shows family, parenting, and emotional recovery in a light not usually captured in either fiction or documentary. Reed and Sam Harkness set out on a road trip to find Jois when Sam was seventeen. When Sam was fourteen, Jois disappeared.īut SAM NOW is not a true crime story.

Sam’s mother mother Jois (pronounced Joyce) had divorced Reed and Sam’s father Randy Harkness and remarried. These shorts often featured Sam as the character the Blue Panther. SAM NOW is a multi-award-winning documentary that has its television premiere Monday, May 8, on INDEPENDENT LENS on PBS.įilmmaker Reed Harkness began making short films featuring his younger half-brother Sam Harkness when Sam was eleven.

Amy reed beautiful