Red Herring review – document of family soul-searching after terminal diagnosis

The disarmingly candid film follows Vincent and his loved ones as they try to find ways to deal with a devastating prognosis

When he was 24, film-maker Kit Vincent was diagnosed with a brain tumour; doctors said that he could expect to live four to eight years. This emotional, raw and quietly powerful documentary started out as a study of how his dad Lawrence came to terms with his son getting ill. The title is a giveaway that the finished article is not that film.

At times, it feels like family therapy. Vincent hangs out with his parents, who divorced when he was a teenager. Time is running out, and the camera is switched on – two facts that force everyone into the kind of deep, soul searching conversations that most of us spend a lifetime avoiding having with family. Lawrence (tense and distant-looking in old family photos, mellowed with age) was in the hospital room when Vincent got his diagnosis and promptly had a heart attack. The guilt is still with him: “Just when you needed me the most I flaked out on you.”