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FILM AND VIDEOTAPE REVIEWS
FILM AND VIDEOTAPE REVIEWS Film and Videotape Review Editor:
D. Scott May, M.D.
Content: After World War II, an estimated 200,000 Holocaust survivors came to the United States where they attempted to salvage their shattered lives. Many of them refused to discuss their wartime experiences with their children out of a desire to shield their offspring from the knowledge of such a brutal, horrible reality. The children thus grew to believe that they should not question, trying to spare their parents pain. The result, unwittingly, was a conspiracy of silence, distancing parents from children, creating problems between the generations. Today these children of Holocaust survivors, now young adults, are asking questions about their parents' past. Many children of survivors have formed Second Generation discussion groups to share their concerns. Breaking the Silence focuses on one such group. Comprised of nine young Jews early in their careers, the group openly discusses the impact of the Holocaust on their lives and articulates the need to communicate with their parents. The film follows them as they build the courage to speak to their parents about a heretofore forbidden subject, showing the emotion-laden discussions among the members of four families as they confront these sensitive issues directly for the first time in their lives. Interwoven throughout the film are the comments of several authorities, including psychiatrist and author Robert J. Lifton, who has written about the survivors of the Hiroshima nuclear blast and Vietnam veterans; Helen Epstein , author of the best-selling book, Children of the Holocaust; Menachem Z. Rosensaft, founder and chairman of the International Network of Jewish Holocaust Survivors; and history professor Moshe Waldoks (the latter three are themselves children of Holocaust survivors). A Jewish parent group and an eighth grade classroom discussion of the Holocaust are also featured in the film.
Family Circle. Distributed by lEA Productions, Inc., 520 East 77th St., New York, NY 10021, (212) 9889244. Produced by H. James Lurie, M.D., with Ian Alger , M.D. Length, 27 minutes; color videotape; purchase price $195, rental price $100. Content: This is a teaching tape that focuses on the use of live videotaping and playback in family therapy sessions. The various possibilities for the use of this tool is explored through active demonstration by Dr. Ian Alger. Through the use of actors and a simulated clinical situation, Dr. Alger plays back sections of the family therapy session to the family, demonstrating the videotape's ability to capture small gestures, facial expressions and positioning in the room often missed in non taped sessions both by the therapist and family members. Through careful use of this tool, which allows a therapist to emphasize and replay crucial affective and physical communications, he or she can focus in on patterns of communication, closeness and distance, defenses and modeling. Dr. Alger demonstrates how with one camera and a playback monitor he shifts the session's focus from the identified problem of a daughter departing for college to relationships within the marital couple and one set of grandparents. Audience: This film is designed for anyone who practices family therapy and is interested in adding another tool to his or her approach. Thus child psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and marriage and family counselors can all benefit from observing this simulation. Evaluatiun: This is a high technical quality production that is well aimed at its goal of demonstrating the use of live videotaping with feedback in a family therapy session. Dr. Alger comments on the fact that he com presses the use of the technique excessively into this 37-minute tape in order to display its potential, and thus it does not flow as a normal session. Nevertheless, it is a very helpful guide for those considering the use of videotape to augment their therapeutic approach.
Audience: This film is appropriate for survivors and the children of survivors from any major catastrophe, for students of the Holocaust, and for mental health professionals dealing with survivors of major traumas and those interested in intergenerational communication.
Breaking the Silence: The Generation after the Holocaust . Produced by Edward Mason, M.D., Eva Folgelman, Ph.D., and Henry Grunebaum, M.D. Distributed by The Cinema Guild, 1697 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, (212) 246-522. Length, 58 minutes; color; film purchase $850, film rental $95, videotape purchase $450.
Evaluation: Technically the sound and the visual images are quite good. The editing is generally quite good, though at times the 58 minutes seem a bit too long. It has a very real, believable quality, and does an (j79
680
FILM AND VIDEOTAPE REVIEWS
excellent job of capturing both the survivors and their children's feelings about actual events and the psychological assumptions that accompany them. Both the ideas and the feelings of the people in this film are powerfully expressed and felt such that the viewer is drawn into the themes and the web of intergenera-
tional issues. This film not only admirably explores the impact of the Holocaust one generation later, but it elucidates the forces of guilt, collusion, denial, suppressed anger and depression that accompany any major trauma and how this is transmitted and handled by the offspring of those suffering the trauma.
HOUSTON CHILD GUIDANCE CENTER
TITLE: "Beyond Institutions: Constructing Viable Clinical and Economic Alternatives for Children and Adolescents in the 1990s" DATE: October 27-28, 1985 PLACE: Crowne Plaza Hotel Houston, Texas SUMMARY: A forum for networking and exploration of issues concerning noninstitutional care. This meeting will address future economic directions and clinical implications CREDIT HOURS: Applications pending SPONSORS: Houston Child Guidance Center Institute for Child and Family Studies National Institute of Mental Health Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation CONTACT: Marsha Baumann, M.S.W., or Stephen L. Pollack, Ph.D. Houston Child Guidance Center 3214 Austin Street Houston, Texas 77004 (713) 526-3232
D. Scott May, M.D.
Content: After World War II, an estimated 200,000 Holocaust survivors came to the United States where they attempted to salvage their shattered lives. Many of them refused to discuss their wartime experiences with their children out of a desire to shield their offspring from the knowledge of such a brutal, horrible reality. The children thus grew to believe that they should not question, trying to spare their parents pain. The result, unwittingly, was a conspiracy of silence, distancing parents from children, creating problems between the generations. Today these children of Holocaust survivors, now young adults, are asking questions about their parents' past. Many children of survivors have formed Second Generation discussion groups to share their concerns. Breaking the Silence focuses on one such group. Comprised of nine young Jews early in their careers, the group openly discusses the impact of the Holocaust on their lives and articulates the need to communicate with their parents. The film follows them as they build the courage to speak to their parents about a heretofore forbidden subject, showing the emotion-laden discussions among the members of four families as they confront these sensitive issues directly for the first time in their lives. Interwoven throughout the film are the comments of several authorities, including psychiatrist and author Robert J. Lifton, who has written about the survivors of the Hiroshima nuclear blast and Vietnam veterans; Helen Epstein , author of the best-selling book, Children of the Holocaust; Menachem Z. Rosensaft, founder and chairman of the International Network of Jewish Holocaust Survivors; and history professor Moshe Waldoks (the latter three are themselves children of Holocaust survivors). A Jewish parent group and an eighth grade classroom discussion of the Holocaust are also featured in the film.
Family Circle. Distributed by lEA Productions, Inc., 520 East 77th St., New York, NY 10021, (212) 9889244. Produced by H. James Lurie, M.D., with Ian Alger , M.D. Length, 27 minutes; color videotape; purchase price $195, rental price $100. Content: This is a teaching tape that focuses on the use of live videotaping and playback in family therapy sessions. The various possibilities for the use of this tool is explored through active demonstration by Dr. Ian Alger. Through the use of actors and a simulated clinical situation, Dr. Alger plays back sections of the family therapy session to the family, demonstrating the videotape's ability to capture small gestures, facial expressions and positioning in the room often missed in non taped sessions both by the therapist and family members. Through careful use of this tool, which allows a therapist to emphasize and replay crucial affective and physical communications, he or she can focus in on patterns of communication, closeness and distance, defenses and modeling. Dr. Alger demonstrates how with one camera and a playback monitor he shifts the session's focus from the identified problem of a daughter departing for college to relationships within the marital couple and one set of grandparents. Audience: This film is designed for anyone who practices family therapy and is interested in adding another tool to his or her approach. Thus child psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and marriage and family counselors can all benefit from observing this simulation. Evaluatiun: This is a high technical quality production that is well aimed at its goal of demonstrating the use of live videotaping with feedback in a family therapy session. Dr. Alger comments on the fact that he com presses the use of the technique excessively into this 37-minute tape in order to display its potential, and thus it does not flow as a normal session. Nevertheless, it is a very helpful guide for those considering the use of videotape to augment their therapeutic approach.
Audience: This film is appropriate for survivors and the children of survivors from any major catastrophe, for students of the Holocaust, and for mental health professionals dealing with survivors of major traumas and those interested in intergenerational communication.
Breaking the Silence: The Generation after the Holocaust . Produced by Edward Mason, M.D., Eva Folgelman, Ph.D., and Henry Grunebaum, M.D. Distributed by The Cinema Guild, 1697 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, (212) 246-522. Length, 58 minutes; color; film purchase $850, film rental $95, videotape purchase $450.
Evaluation: Technically the sound and the visual images are quite good. The editing is generally quite good, though at times the 58 minutes seem a bit too long. It has a very real, believable quality, and does an (j79
680
FILM AND VIDEOTAPE REVIEWS
excellent job of capturing both the survivors and their children's feelings about actual events and the psychological assumptions that accompany them. Both the ideas and the feelings of the people in this film are powerfully expressed and felt such that the viewer is drawn into the themes and the web of intergenera-
tional issues. This film not only admirably explores the impact of the Holocaust one generation later, but it elucidates the forces of guilt, collusion, denial, suppressed anger and depression that accompany any major trauma and how this is transmitted and handled by the offspring of those suffering the trauma.
HOUSTON CHILD GUIDANCE CENTER
TITLE: "Beyond Institutions: Constructing Viable Clinical and Economic Alternatives for Children and Adolescents in the 1990s" DATE: October 27-28, 1985 PLACE: Crowne Plaza Hotel Houston, Texas SUMMARY: A forum for networking and exploration of issues concerning noninstitutional care. This meeting will address future economic directions and clinical implications CREDIT HOURS: Applications pending SPONSORS: Houston Child Guidance Center Institute for Child and Family Studies National Institute of Mental Health Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation CONTACT: Marsha Baumann, M.S.W., or Stephen L. Pollack, Ph.D. Houston Child Guidance Center 3214 Austin Street Houston, Texas 77004 (713) 526-3232