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Logline

The night before musician Buddy Kidd’s launches his comeback tour alongside his second born rockstar daughter, she slips into a diabetic coma, putting life and tour on hold, leaving the family to contend with grief, uncertainty, and the true meaning of a comeback.

Synopsis

Come Back Kidd is a multi-generational story about a family of musicians contending with illness, recovery, artistry and evolution. The patriarch of the family, Buddy Kidd, is a journeyman bassist and songwriter who spent the better part of the seventies and eighties on the road with Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band while his two young daughters, Freddie and Kelly, watched their mother fight a losing battle to cancer in their midwestern home.

Buddy leaves the road to raise his two young girls. Widowed and mother-less, the grief-stricken trio got by making music, telling stories, and playing make believe. Burdened by old habits from the road, Buddy self-medicates with booze, leaning heavily on his first born daughter, Freddie, while channeling his artistry and ambition into his second born daughter, Kelly, a musician and rockstar in the making.

The film opens in the famed First Avenue club in downtown Minneapolis where a grown Kelly announces her dad’s ‘comeback tour’.

Simultaneously, Freddie’s teenage daughter Sam, a scientist and burgeoning musician herself, finds her dad who has overdosed on pain meds. Sam revives him but is left traumatized.

Sam and Freddie promptly move back into Freddie’s childhood where Buddy and Kelly still reside. A home built by railroad money — untouched since the 1980’s.

Everyone under one roof, tensions arise. Lapsing on her meds, Kelly slips into a diabetic coma. Freddie goes into overdrive with care taking; Buddy resorts to the bottle, attempting to reconfigure the tour; Sam seeks connection with Buddy, resorting to music to process her fear and frustration.

Buddy engages Sam, sharing life lessons, regrets and rules of the game. Sam learns guitar and becomes lead singer in her own band. Freddie finds freedom and autonomy, her husband gets thru recovery and Kelly awakens — the entire family makes a comeback.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Kate Nowlin — Writer/Director/Producer/Actor
As an award winning filmmaker, actor and Yale Drama graduate, Kate’s feature film, Blood Stripe, received critical acclaim and recognition as “one to watch” by Movie Maker Magazine. Chief film critic for the LA Times, Kenneth Turan, said this: “Made with passion, integrity and skill, Blood Stripe is American Independent filmmaking at its most effective.” Kate both wrote and starred in the project, co-created with Remy Auberjonois. Her most recent grant-funded short film, Lemon Shark won multiple awards with Kate again serving as writer/director and actor.

Come Back Kidd marks Kate’s feature film directorial debut, as well as having written and co-starring in the project. Among Kate’s many other film and tv credits (working with directors Craig Zobel, Jason Reitman, Miguel Arteta and more) she most recently originated a role at The Public Theater of NYC in a world premiere play by Pulitzer Prize Winner Suzan Lori-Parks.

Llewellyn Wells — Producer
Llewellyn is an Emmy award winning producer of such shows as The West Wing, Animal Kingdom and Designated Survivor. Llewellyn has spent 28 years working in the entertainment industry. In his early career he worked on such highly acclaimed independent films as Bagdad Café, The Grifters, Dogfight and Under Suspicion. Llewellyn won five Emmy awards, a Golden Globe and two Producers Guild awards as one of the original producers of The West Wing.

Most recently, he produced Animal Kingdom for WBTV/TNT, Amazing Stories and Last Days of Ptolemy Grey for Apple TV and The Emperor of Ocean Park for MGM+/WBTV.

Schuyler Weiss — Consulting Producer
Schuyler Weiss, an Academy Award nominee, is based in Gold Coast, Australia and New York. He’s been with Baz Luhrmann’s Bazmark since 2005, now as Managing Director, producing partner, and co-executive for Elvis. He’s also working on Hulu and Disney+’s limited series Faraway Downs. Schuyler co-produced Kate Nowlin and Remy Auberjonois’ critically acclaimed and award winning feature film, Blood Stripe.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.