Writer/director Vivian Kerr accomplishes something daring in her directorial debut Scrap by combining two very different but equally compelling subject matters: Challenging sibling relationships and the beginning stages of homelessness. The indie film, currently making the rounds at film festivals, has won praise for its timely story and solid acting.

Kerr also stars in the movie, playing Beth, a woman who has recently been laid off and struggles to maintain the appearance of a successful middle-class lifestyle. Desperate to land a new job and change her situation, she soon finds herself butting up against her estranged older brother Ben (Anthony Rapp of Star Trek: Discovery), who discovers her dilemma. And so begins a unique adult coming-of-age tale about mending broken ties and moving forward amidst great uncertainty.

Scrap is a character-driven drama that has won high marks for its strong cast, emotional depth, and the way it captures real-life issues. Vivian Kerr shared more about the film in this exclusive MovieWeb interview:

The Origins of Scrap

In Scrap, the character of Beth starts heading down a dark road, but she’s on a mission to turn her life around. She must confront her own pride to do that, and reconnect with her brother Ben, who’s having issues in his marriage. Ben and his attorney wife, Stacy (Lana Parrilla of The Lincoln Lawyer), are debating a third round of IVF. They’re in that awkward stage of re-evaluating their relationship and parenthood. Then Ben discovers Beth’s secret, sending emotions high.

The genesis of the story was the result of two things that came together for Kerr. One was Kerr’s older sister, Marion, who plays the mother of the two main characters in flashback scenes. “We’re very close,” Kerr says of her sister, “and I’ve always loved movies about siblings. I’ve always loved You Can Count on Me with Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo, and The Savages with Philip Seymour Hoffman. Those were some of my favorite movies. I always wanted to make a movie about siblings, but I never really found the right story that kind of really sparked for me or something that I thought would be a sustainable feature.”

Related: The 10 Best Movies About Grown-Up Siblings

She had been living in Hollywood for years and began to notice her neighborhood changing. Suddenly, she was seeing a lot more people sleeping in their cars or on the sidewalks, in RVs, and living in tents. She explained:

It really affected me to see the neighborhood change so quickly and to see people going through so much suffering and struggle. I got this idea about someone who was experiencing just the beginning of that, like what just the beginning of that, maybe slippery slope would look like.

To that end, when audiences meet Kerr’s Beth in the beginning of the movie, she’s only been sleeping in her car for about two weeks. But, as Kerr points out, she’s already going down that extreme homelessness path if she doesn’t find a way out.

“It was me wanting to approach the topic of homelessness from a slightly different angle,” she adds, “maybe one that we hadn’t seen before as well as combining this idea of healing a fractured sibling relationship.”

On Working with Scrap’s Cast
Season of Rain Productions

Kerr admits she was excited to get behind the camera on Scrap. Her acting roles include roles in Grey’s Anatomy, Rizzoli & Isles, Superstore, Master of Sex, New Girl, and other series. In addition to Kerr, Rapp, and Parrilla, Scrap also stars Khleo Thomas (Holes), Beth Dover (Orange Is the New Black), Brad Schmidt (The Birth of a Nation), and Julianna Layne (A Christmas Story Christmas). Vivian Kerr praised the entire cast, particularly noting Anthony Rapp’s “generosity” as an actor.

“I was in the edit with my amazing editor, Toby Yates [Shameless], and I was seeing so much nuance and even in Anthony’s eyes,” she said. “There’s a closeup shot of him driving the car and there’s no dialogue. He’s just driving the car, looking straight ahead. And there’s just so much pain and confusion in his eyes. He has such a rich inner life as an actor. So, I think getting to appreciate that, and to work with him and feed off that was a total privilege.”

Related: The 10 Coolest Older Siblings in Movie History

She went on to say that it took 20 days to shoot the film. She hopes audiences recognize in Beth their own fallibility and “forgive themselves a little bit,” adding that:

“Beth has to forgive herself and also take responsibility for her life — for her bad decisions, for her inadequacies, but then also forgive herself to be able to move forward. It’s like, maybe you haven’t been the best mother, but you can start today and make a change. You can be more present for your child, starting right now. I hope people kind of relate to Beth in that sense.”

She also hopes the film encourages people to think about their own sibling relationships. Mostly, she realizes that Scrap is a timely film, something which she kept in mind when writing and later directing it. “So many major cities in the U.S. are dealing with this crisis [homelessness]. This is not something that’s unique to Hollywood or unique to Los Angeles. Then we had the pandemic, obviously, which made it a lot worse. There are so many people out of work. As we progressed through the making of the film, and its festival run, it’s only gotten worse, and more relatable.

“Now, we have the strikes and people are really suffering economically because of that,” she added. “No matter what city we take the film to, there’s always people in the audience who seem to connect to it really strongly.”

Chances are, you will to. Scrap is currently making the rounds at film festivals. Look for more updates here in the future.