"Given the opportunity, would you want to know your family's secrets? 'When it comes to your parents, maybe ignorance is bliss,' observes filmmaker Doug Block [Cornell '75] well into this profoundly bittersweet exploration of his mother and father's fifty-five-year marriage. Yet, if your father married his former secretary, Kitty, only a few months after the death of his wife, questions would inevitably arise. And if three boxes of your mother's soul-baring journals were found in the attic, you'd hope to find some answers—wouldn't you?... Intimate and universal, this insightful personal documentary...surprises with layers of reflection on love, marriage, fidelity and our constantly shifting perspectives on our parents." (Toronto Film Festival) "A triumph of true life storytelling... with every bit the emotional punch of more sensationalist documentary fare." (Variety) Cosponsored with the Experimental Television Center's Presentation Funds Program, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts. More at 51birchstreet.com
2005, color, 1 hour 28 minutes, USA