Circus Kid

Growing up isn't easy when your father's a clown. That's one lesson of Lorenzo Pisoni's moving documentary, which offers an intimate portrait of San Francisco's famed Pickle Family Circus and of its mercurial founder, Larry Pisoni. Started in the 1970s, the one-ring circus entertained with dazzling acrobatics, juggling, and often-subversive clowning - a direct precursor of Cirque du Soleil. Born into this milieu, Lorenzo was six when he donned matching greasepaint and baggy pants to join Larry in a brilliant father-son act. Exhaustion and personal demons eventually drove Larry to abandon the troupe and his family. With Circus Kid, Lorenzo seeks to reconstruct what happened and reconcile with his father's complex legacy. Including vintage footage and interviews with legendary performers Bill Irwin and Geoff Hoyle, this unique glimpse of clown life shouldn't be missed. (Mill Valley Film Festival)