This is Martin Bonner

Screening: Saturday, April 13, 2013, 11am

Running Time: 80 minutes

This is Martin Bonner

Synopsis: Martin Bonner has just moved to Nevada from the East Coast, leaving behind his two adult children and a life he spent more than two decades building. He’s there working a new job as the volunteer coordinator for a non-profit organization that helps prisoners make the transition from incarceration to freedom. It’s Martin’s first job in two years and he’s recently declared bankruptcy. At the same time, Travis Holloway, a prisoner in the program, is being released after serving twelve years. Sent back into the world with nothing, Travis also finds life in Reno difficult to adjust to, despite the help from his program sponsor, Steve Helms. The stories of Martin and Travis slowly converge, as the two men meet and find that they have much in common, not the least of which is an unspoken need for encouragement and support. Their unlikely friendship blossoms but is put to the test when Travis betrays Martin’s trust in order to reunite with his estranged daughter.

What the Critics Are Saying:

“Rigorously subdued in performance and tone, this low-key character portrait is distinguished by its empathetic honesty.”
—The Hollywood Reporter

“Saintliness and cinema are an odd couple, enough so that auds will be caught off-guard by “This Is Martin Bonner,” a mood piece, a character study and an exercise in poetic gesture possessed of a sort of evanescent, secular spirituality. Helmer Chad Hartigan’s second feature (after “Luke and Brie Are on a First Date”) is Americana of a very immediate sort, a tale of redemption that may leave its viewers with an uncanny sense of peace.”
—Variety