Itzhak
my grandfather
Delayed Stress Disorder
Director and third-generation Holocaust survivor Liron Unreich overlays a childhood interview with his grandfather, poet, and “war victim” Itzhak upon a visual of an idyllic, All-American landscape. As he speaks, his words reveal a resonating pain and desperation and desire of escape where the only remedy is to write down the stories of lives lost so they don’t die again.
Fred
my neighbor
Intrusive Memory
Liron’s chance meeting with neighbor, artist, and Holocaust survivor, Fred Terna, paints the way for a colorful story of the changing landscape of memory. The story frames the methodology of Fred’s self-prescribed art therapy as he reveals how his painterly memory of a dark and forbidding Auschwitz comes to light over a 40 year period of painting the same subject.
Daniela & Zigmund
my friend
and
her father
Reconsolidation
Daniela, renowned neuroscientist and specialist in trauma and the reconsolidation of memory, employs director Liron Unreich to help her reveal the secrets behind her Holocaust survivor father’s unwillingness to share his story. As Zigmund’s tragic experience unfolds, it becomes clear that Daniela’s professional work has always been about unlocking her father’s motivation and process of protecting his memories.
Marc & Dina
my confidant
and
his inspiration
Postmemory Witnessing
Marc, a New York City painter and a scholar of clandestine holocaust art, meets Holocaust survivor Dina at one of his lectures in a small town in upstate New York. The relationship blossoms through Marc’s unquenchable curiosity of daily life within The Shoah. Encouraged and guided by Liron, Marc journeys on an intimate video interview with Dina that culminates in a larger-than-life portrait of this petite survivor just before her passing.
david
new friend from
an old life
Prosthetic Memory
David, an accomplished New York advertising executive, is headed to meet his devout Christian parents. Looking into that camera, David claims, “I’m a Jew, I’m a Christian, I’m a Holocaust survivor.” He is about to reveal to his parents, and on camera, that he believes that in a past life he was a Jew who died in the Holocaust. Putting everything on the line, David, a lifelong Type-1 diabetic, whose religious upbringing caused personal, familial tensions and fractures, must deal with his past and present trauma.
