Her Name Was Jo

When 10-year-old Jo’s abusive junkie stepdad, ODs on heroine, she panics when the police come, and flees with her friend Selma in her step-dad’s beat-up Buick. They are bound for Los Angeles, in hopes of finding her biological father, who she only knows from an old CD left her by her deceased mother, folk singer Johnny Alvarez. On the way, they must contend with trains, meth heads, unexpected deaths, and more; it’s a poetic, yet brutal portrait of the dark side of Americana. (Zlín Film Festival)