Russo-Young excavates her family history with the help of home movies, archived photos and extensive interviews with her mothers and her sister, Cade Russo-Young.
She tells it again in “ Nuclear Family,” a three-part documentary that premieres on HBO on Sunday, with subsequent episodes airing weekly. It is a story she has been trying to tell - through multimedia projects, through independent films, through mainstream teen movies - ever since. The story had to be clear, it had to be credible. In the room with the psychiatrist, Russo-Young had to tell the story of her family and the story to herself. In 1991, Thomas Steel, the man who had donated the sperm for Russo-Young’s conception, sued her mothers for standing as her father and for immediate visitation.
Russo-Young is the younger daughter of Sandy Russo and Robin Young. Ry Russo-Young was 9 years old the first time she told this story, for an audience of one: the psychiatrist appointed to her case.
