It's October. Filmmaker/photographer Robbie Lyle (Banfitch) has returned home from Los Angeles to the New Jersey house in which he grew up, now only occupied by his mother, Leslie (Leslie Ann Banfitch, the director's own mother). She's pleased to see him, but an overarching grief lies across the home; Robbie's sister Noelle disappeared in the woods some time previously, and despite extensive searching, remains lost.
It's clear that for Robbie, there are hidden emotions, complicated by the fact that his mother failed to tell him of the disappearance for some time after it happened. Leslie attempts to keep herself busy baking and keeping the home running on the off chance that Noelle will return; her missing daughter's bedroom remains exactly as it was when she left.
But Robbie's mother also holds supernatural beliefs, consulting a local medium and regularly talking about spirits and fairies; Noelle's music box, which mysteriously plays at night, and flickering room lights suggest to Leslie an attempt at contact. His instinct is to film his mother, to document her grief and her increasingly erratic behaviour.
Robbie's presence at home stirs memories of Noelle in the hand coloured cassette tapes and her own recorded music left behind in her room. Perhaps frustrated by the lack of curiosity shown by the police, and the friendship of two local girls, Heather and Nancy (Heather Middleton and Nancy Bujnowski) whose presence triggers memories of his missing sister, Robbie sets out into the woods to try and find Noelle, whether alive or dead.
There's an intimacy to Tinsman Road, unexpected in a film which plays with the audience a little; the movie's introduction, dedicated to the Lyle family, suggests we're about to see a documentary, which is not the case. Reality and unreality are tied together through montages of Banfitch family home movies, featuring the director as a young boy with Leslie as a younger woman, while at the same time the director creates a clever construction of a fictional family setup. And it's a slow construction, Banfitch breaking one of the first 'rules' of found footage (keep it at 75 minutes or less) by his film running nearly two hours, and daring at times to be prosaic, even boring.
Frustratingly Robbie is rarely glimpsed in front of the camera, but his own grief permeates the footage and his desire for the truth - albeit fictional - is palpable. Tinsman Road won't be for everyone - it's lack of action and pace, right up until the film's jolting final few minutes, can test the patience. But it's beautifully done and often surprisingly affecting bearing in mind how little we know about the characters on screen. Recommended.
Tinsman Road is on UK, Ireland, US, Australia and New Zealand digital platforms from 3 August 2026
