No Pictures with my Father review (2025)

November 14, 2025 Jeffrey Lyles No Pictures with my Father, Reginald M. Jernigan Jr.

No Pictures with my Father is an earnest, if not overly exciting look at men lamenting their relationship, or lack thereof, with their fathers.

Director/writer Reginald M. Jernigan Jr. was inspired to craft No Pictures with my Father after realizing that through 40 years he didn’t have a picture with just the two of them.

That led Jernigan to travel to Florida to have an honest discussion with his father, a likable, relaxed storyteller about his upbringing and the state of their relationship. After splitting from Jernigan’s mother, Jernigan Sr. stayed involved in his life for a time before eventually becoming a non-factor.

A conversation with a classmate encouraged Jernigan to reconnect with his father and ultimately the creation of No Pictures with my Father.

Jernigan Jr. doesn’t have an expansive budget for No Pictures with my Father. This isn’t the type of story that needs an extravagant, lavish set. He sits on his father’s porch as they deal with minor nuisances such as bugs and cell phone interruptions.

Despite the work done to restore the relationship, Jernigan still seems to have some understandable levels of resentment specifically asking if his father remembered him not getting him for a Christmas celebration.

Thankfully, this opening act of No Pictures with my Father isn’t an extended blame game — Jernigan Sr. and Jr. have an honest conversation about their past and their excitement over their current relationship.

The back half of No Pictures with my Father finds Jernigan Jr. meeting with other men — Dr. Jamie Geronimo Vela, Shannon Johnson, Gio, JQW — whose stories aren’t as inspiring. In most instances, the interview subjects have lost their fathers and don’t have the opportunity to get that elusive photo.

Jernigan asks solid questions from his subjects who discuss challenging issues they faced largely growing up without their fathers being active participants in their lives. He’s largely interviewing on the fly with a spontaneity that is refreshing but also lacks a steady flow where he can guide the conversations. All acknowledged the void and how it left them feeling like disappointments and emotionally damaged.

This portion of No Pictures with my Father isn’t a total downer. Some of the interview subjects offer advice for any fathers or children who might not be on speaking terms.

Others share how they were intent on breaking the cycle and happy to take on the responsibility to be fathers — fathers who take plenty of photos with their children.

The budget limitations do creep up in No Pictures with my Father, as Jernigan is a one-man production company so lighting and sound can be inconsistent. This is especially problematic for the interview with JQW, who has the most emotional discussion, which gets drowned out by the banging of lockers being closed in the background.

To break up some of the monotony of the interview subjects just sitting/standing around, Jernigan might have offered some other B-roll footage. Maybe showing them in some other aspects of their lives, potentially with their children to show that the loss of a close bond with their father hasn’t wrecked their lives.

No Pictures with my Father has a worthwhile message on the dangers of letting ego and pride get in the way of much needed emotional healing before it’s too late, but the film loses its hook after Jernigan’s initial encounter with his father making the subsequent interviews less impactful.

Perhaps Jernigan could have led off with his quest to have this sit-down face-to-face conversation with his father, cut to the other interviews and conclude the documentary with the Jernigans chatting? That could have provided a more compelling narrative and some measure of suspense if Jernigan would avoid the same fate as his interview subjects.