When Lucy Shirrell of Chicago heard Howard Reich’s lecture on his documentary, “Prisoner of Her Past,” she discovered an important exception to one of the basic tenets of journalism: Do not interview your own family.
“We’re taught very often that we shouldn’t cover things that are related to us, or that have anything to do with ourselves,” Shirrell said. “This documentary was very unique in that it showed that his family circumstances put him in a unique position, in a positive way. It gave him the perspective and the nuance and the understanding to approach his family story from a place of a lot of empathy. Just any reporter couldn’t have done that in the way that he did.”
Former Chicago Tribune arts critic Howard Reich, an author and Emmy-winning filmmaker, spoke to cherubs July 15 about the story behind his documentary, which described his mother’s late-onset PTSD from being a Holocaust survivor.
The film illustrated the challenges of piecing together the past and exploring family history, Olivia Karp of Miami said.
“I learned that in order to investigate your family’s history, you need to investigate yourself, because when you were born, you were born into the history your family created,” Karp said. “You’re not only weaving the stories of your loved ones, you’re weaving the story of yourself and your past. The past of your family is a part of you, and before you need to investigate your family, you need to decide if you’re ready to discover yourself. Once you do that, you can make that connection spur alive and weave onto paper, onto film, onto anything that you want to explore.”
Skylar Sachs of Toledo, Ohio, said she admired the courage and strength it took Reich to create such a piece.
“You have to have a lot of bravery to confront your own family history,” Sachs said. “You have a lot of bravery to look traumatic family circumstances directly in the eye and confront it without getting afraid. It takes a lot of persistence.”
The honesty woven throughout the piece was admirable, Sachs said.
“If you are confronting your own history, it’s hard not to shape the narrative in the way that you want it to be shaped, not in the truthful way, but in the desirable way,” Sachs said. “What Howard Reich does so well is that he shows the entire history of trauma without trying to ameliorate the bad circumstances or hide the pain. He shows that truthfully, he doesn’t shy away from his own personal pain or how he’s been at fault all these years. I think that’s powerful.”
Claire Lin of Reno, Nevada, said she appreciated Reich’s initiative when he hit a dead end, and the way that reflected his investigative journalism background.
“I think he was pretty resourceful with how he decided to take on the story, especially when he was not only looking at immediate family, but branching out to old family friends and close relatives or distant relatives in other countries,” Lin said. “He definitely demonstrated commitment and willingness to branch out to figure out the different pieces, and also because it wasn’t entirely accessible or easy for him to go talk to them. His persistence and willingness to just keep going to find the rest of the story was really awesome.”
