Inspired by nostalgia and a romantic idea of family legacy, hip-hop artist and songwriter Che "Rhymefest" Smith decides to purchase his childhood home on Chicago’s South Side and raise his new family in the same house where he grew up. He quickly discovers that his estranged father is a homeless alcoholic living only blocks away, and hesitantly sets out to reconnect with the man who abandoned him over twenty years ago. Soon Che finds that fatherhood is more complicated than his idealized version allowed him to believe.

Esteemed documentarians Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg bring a perceptive sensitivity to their stirring, multigenerational character study, at the same time offering a thoughtful examination of contemporary black fatherhood on an individual and community level. Constructed from home movies, archival photographs, and verité footage shot over the course of a year, In My Father’s House is an intimate chronicle of Che's sincere but often-fraught journey to build a future for his own family by reconnecting with his traumatic past. .

—Cara Cusumano

Directed by

Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg