Aftersun Film Club: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

In fact, from the time you were very little, you’ve had people who have smiled you into smiling, people who have talked you into talking, sung you into singing, loved you into loving.

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Last time at Aftersun Film Club, we gathered for a very special screening of movie one of two as part of our new theme: Based on a True Story. This time, it wasn’t a harrowing thriller or a tense family drama. Instead, it was something tender, gentle, and quietly radical — the 2018 documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

38 Aftersunettes settled in for this beautiful tribute to Fred Rogers, the host and creator of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, a show that shaped childhoods in America for over three decades. But what we discovered together was so much more than a nostalgic TV show. More on this later. 

Before our main feature, we screened the short film My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes, a raw, intimate documentary by Charlie Tyrell that pieces together his complicated relationship with his late father through personal relics, family interviews, and, yes, old VHS tapes.

Obvious porno tapes

The film is unflinchingly honest, exposing the messy legacies parents leave behind and the ripple effects of unresolved pain, tough love, and unspoken emotions. It’s a reminder of how family histories shape us, whether we acknowledge them or not. Also…more on this later. For now…

Try your best to make goodness attractive

The documentary weaves through Fred Rogers’ life and philosophy with grace, offering a heartfelt portrait of a man who believed, almost defiantly, in the power of kindness, empathy, and radical decency. In a world that often rewards toughness and cynicism, Mr. Rogers offered something rare — an unflinching belief in goodness. This is something that many adults find hard: to allow themselves to experience goodness/kindness without flinching. We are much more open in our goodness extending outward, and do not know how to accept goodness without a price attached to it. 

And so, there’s something disarming about watching a story so sincerely told, with no trace of irony, in documentary form. Every Aftersunette seemed to lean into the screen, letting Fred Rogers’ voice remind us of the simple yet powerful things: that everyone deserves to be loved exactly as they are, and that kindness is an act of courage, an act of rebellion. Many Aftersunettes, to our surprise, embraced the film and its theme, almost as if there is a common place inside all of us that still believes in goodness… believes in wonder like a child. Almost as if, despite how jaded we might have become, there is a little human inside us who remains the same, eager to embrace Mr Rogers’ message.

The film was a timely reminder that stories based on true lives don’t have to be sensational or tragic to matter. Sometimes, the most radical stories are the ones where someone chooses kindness, every single day.

Pictured here: the 143 cards placed on each seat with a quote by Mr Rogers

The greatest gift you ever give is your honest self.

At first glance, My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes and Won’t You Be My Neighbor? might seem worlds apart in tone and subject. One is playful, bittersweet, and confessional; the other is quietly profound and radiates warmth.

But what connects them is a deep reflection on parenthood, legacy, and the importance of choosing to do good for our children.

Fred Rogers made it his life’s work to tell children that they were valuable, lovable, and worthy of kindness. In contrast, Charlie Tyrell’s film wrestles with the absence of that same tenderness, exploring what happens when those messages go unsaid.

Together, the two films served as bookends to an important conversation: the choices we make as adults echo long after we’re gone, and choosing love, kindness, and emotional honesty can change the course of a child’s life.

The evening’s films reaffirmed how real stories, when told honestly and with heart, can open up conversations we might otherwise avoid. Both documentaries allowed us to reflect on how we nurture (or fail to nurture) those we love, and how intentional, empathetic choices can shape a gentler, more hopeful world.

As always, it was more than a screening; it was a shared experience. We left a little softer, a little more hopeful, and maybe with a quiet vow to carry forward a bit of that radical kindness in our own corners of the world. It reminded us that radical kindness isn’t naïve, it’s courageous.

Until next time… Hydrate and hug somebody!

We left a little softer, a little more hopeful, and maybe with a quiet vow to carry forward a bit of that radical kindness in our own corners of the world.