PERSONAL STATEMENT FROM DIRECTOR JOSH VICTOR ROTHSTEIN:
The story of Every Other Weekend draws inspiration from my personal experiences growing up in a tumultuous family dynamic with flawed and complex parents. Grappling with internal and external conflicts, while at the same time finding moments of liberation, and self-discovery that emerged unexpectedly, the story mirrors my own coming of age journey as a young teenager trying to make sense of the world around me.
In writing this story as an adult, and as the father of a 12 year old daughter and 14 year old son, I have felt highly motivated to advance positive themes for young people and to depict characters and relationships in realistic and compelling ways. I am very proud of this unique coming of age story that, rather than delve into young romance plot lines, explores themes that are less frequently depicted - such as self acceptance, and cultivating restraint and resilience during life's most challenging moments.
While the main character, Ruby, is a teenage girl, our story also provides a highly naturalistic and compassionate look at the grown up characters as fully realized, three dimensional people. Our Mom character, Joan for instance, although clearly lacking the judgment and impulse control, is not maligned and type cast as the villain. Although flawed and destructive at times, this is not Joan Crawford's Mommy Dearest nor is she the buttoned up 1950s mom character running the perfect household. This is a very different portrayal of the mother figure - and with her rawness and texture, one that we rarely seen on screen for a female role. As a complex and multi dimensional character, Joan is someone who cannot be typecast and put into a box and defined. She is a mother and she is an artist who has put her dreams of being a singer on hold. and as we find her in our story she is unraveling because of that loss. With a dynamic range of personality traits, Joan depicts a complex and flawed human being, who despite efforts to be a good mother for her children, is someone who is struggling in the game of life. And that is a painful experience for everyone involved, especially Ruby.
My goal for this film is to push against the grain of gender stereotypes and archetypes for all the characters, male and female. For instance, in addition to the dynamic mother/daughter relationship that runs throughout the film, one of the other main storylines is the bond that forms between Ruby and a teenage boy named Sam. In Sam's life, toxic masculinity is on full display as he is frequently overwhelmed by a volatile older brother who is constantly grinding him to be more masculine and aggressive. As a result, unified by the extreme pressures they experience, Ruby and Sam develop a strong platonic relationship, encouraging and supporting each other to overcome these challenges and to find their own inner strength and self confidence to become their true selves.
Growing up between two households with polar opposite and dynamic parents, I spent a lot of my childhood trying to reconcile the flaws and differences of the people around me. However, in writing this film over the past few years, I came away with some important life lessons that I hope will be of benefit to my audience: I learned that you can spend a lifetime noticing and bemoaning the faults, flaws and imperfections of everyone around you, or you can choose, like Ruby does in the end of our film, to simply accept this reality, in herself and others around her, and let go and live.
