Love and pain and owning the right car are key to Nina's growing up in Virginia in David Williams's quietly wonderful second feature. Nina's mother takes the viewer along on a wryly funny and deeply touching journey of her remarkable daughter, from her thirteenth through her fourteenth birthdays, amid a lively though fatherless extended family. Confused yet extraordinarily mature, lonely but much loved, Nina determines her goals. She sees no reason why everyone around town shouldn't pay her fair wages for the odd jobs she carries out so oddly, or why she shouldn't run away for a while to figure out her love for her mother. A film of gentle wonder and delight, with superb performances by Wilhemena Dickens and Lillian Folley (both of whom appeared in Williams's first film, Lillian, PFA '95).-New Directors/New Films