For a movie nerd who’s known to stay up all night streaming, the Sundance Film Festival is an incredible experience. Some 17,000 films were shown this year.

It’s impossible to take them all in. But one movie debut, Titus Kaphar’s “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” was an experience I will remember forever.

I got to attend a small group discussion where Kaphar, who I have gotten to know as a friend, talked about writing and directing his semi-autobiographical film. The movie comes with a warning label; reviewers have called it “harrowing” and triggering,” and it is. It’s the story of an artist whose mother encourages him to reconcile with an estranged father struggling with addiction.

The story resonated deeply because that could have been me. That was me.

My dad, a Navy veteran, got caught up in the crack epidemic of the late 1980s. His battle with substance abuse kept him away from our family for 30 years. Those who know me know I was born in a homeless shelter. My........

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