As parents, we see our kids grow up way too fast. In Jesse Stewart’s Piggy Duster, a stepfather hopes to take one last shot at connecting with his daughter before she moves on.
Deep in the Rocky Mountains, a young girl, Vivian (Julia Ma), walks between trees that stand like cathedrals, while her stepfather, Keith (Brian Landis Folkins), chops wood at their campsite. He calls out for Vivian and panics, as if she’s disappeared. He soon finds her reading a book by the creek. Of course, they argue about trust and why he dragged her to the mountains.
Back at the campsite, Keith works too hard to break the ice between them. Vivian is frustrated that her mother left them and that all she has to look forward to in life is a $50,000 college poetry scholarship she plans to use in China with her biological father. Keith puts his foot down, telling her that she can go anywhere in the U.S., but not China. This doesn’t sit well with the almost-adult teen.
Keith meant this trip to remind them of the fun they had when they first met. Vivian was a young girl then. He hopes these memories will give them a chance to bond before she graduates, but Vivian sees it as a futile attempt by a “father” who knows nothing about her.
Vivian (Julia Ma) watches a bear’s shadow move across the tent wall in Piggy Duster.
“Keith puts his foot down, telling her that she can go anywhere in the U.S., but not China.”
Piggy Duster is a story that writer/director Jesse Stewart has carried around for several years. As the father of a former teen/now adult daughter, I find this tale hits a bit too close to home. Kids grow up so fast, and as parents, we hold on to the child we raised, while never really understanding the adult standing before us.
The Rocky Mountain setting matters, too. The wilderness is a special part of life that many of us miss. As Stewart puts it, “Piggy Duster was designed so audiences could slow down from the frantic pace of everyday life.” All Vivian has is a book and her father. No cell signal and definitely no internet.
Piggy Duster is one of those films that lays out the tribulations of a father and daughter in the middle of the wilderness, and we soon realize the stakes are very high. Vivian and Keith are each hiding a secret from the other. Vivian’s is that she wants to leave the house and move to China. Keith’s is a matter of life and death. These are long-term stakes, but now an immediate problem has come up: a bear in the campground.
Julia Ma and Brian Landis Folkins deliver fabulous, endearing performances as the stepdaughter and stepfather at the heart of the story. Their relationship feels all too real, and it’s easy to buy into their conflict and the resolution. Then Stewart introduces younger versions of the pair to nail certain emotional father/daughter moments. I write this with a tear in my eye. If you’re in the empty-nest stage of your life, you can’t help but connect with Piggy Duster.
For screening information, visit the Piggy Duster official website.
"…Julia Ma and Brian Landis Folkins deliver fabulous, endearing performances as the stepdaughter and stepfather at the heart of the story."
