A mysterious disappearance 25 years ago set in motion a 2,000-mile adventure to solve a family mystery.

“Sam Now,” a new documentary by Seattle filmmaker Reed Harkness about his brother Sam’s hunt for answers and his attempt to break free from a tragic event that rippled across generations, explores the legacy of trauma and the turning points of family dysfunction and healing.

Harkness will host a screening and discussion of the film at the Vashon Theater at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 27. Tickets are $10 each.

New York Times film critic Nicholas Rapold called the film … “sensitive and surprising… [It is] a mature reckoning with love, hurt, independence, and hard-won wisdom.”

The documentary uses a hybrid narrative approach, drawing from a vast archive of other films, home videos, intimate family interviews and vérité scenes from over the decades. Audiences will learn about the complicated past of Sam’s mother and complicated past and the long shadow it cast over the Harkness family, including Sam’s brother Jared, father Randy and grandmother Doris.

Shooting on nearly every camera format imaginable, from hand-developed Super-8 film to Arri 4K, Harkness and his older half-brother and director Reed use their creative world of fiction filmmaking to dive headfirst into dealing with the issue at hand: what happened to Sam’s mother, and why. But are these fun-loving brothers truly ready for what lies ahead?

Visit vashontheatre.com for ticketing and more information.