Leaving the Nest

Documentary • 51 Min. | AT | 2017

about the film

In religiously conservative Jacksonville, Elizabeth and Tom Taylor — high school sweethearts turned husband and wife — have built what appears to be the perfect family life. But when two of their sons are diagnosed with incurable mental and physical disabilities, that life begins to fracture.

At fifty, Tom confronts his long-suppressed homosexuality. He leaves his family and moves to New York to begin again as an artist. Yet the past, his responsibilities and his guilt soon catch up with him.

CREDITS

Produced by

Axel Stasny

Written, directed and cinematography by

Axel Stasny

Editing by

Rudolf Agner, Birgit Bergmann und Axel Stasny

Music by
Re-recording mixer
With

Teresa Rotschopf
Gilsub Choi
Elizabeth Taylor, Tom Taylor, Eleanor Ambos.

© Stasny Film

Leaving the Nest film still
Leaving the Nest film still
Leaving the Nest film still
Leaving the Nest film still
awards

Nominated for ADA Ethnocineca Int. Doc. Film Festival 2025
TQFF Toronto Queer Film Festival 2017
14th European Film Festival INTEGRATION YOU and ME 2017
One with a Movie Camera 2017
Winner at Austrian Film Festival for Best Int. Documentary 2017
Auroville Film Festival 2017

poster
Leaving the Nest film poster