Big Sky Documentary Film Festival 2009

Ten short documentaries about my childhood home mixes observational documentary, old movie piano music, re-enactments with masks, and old slides of my childhood to examine our family’s feelings and actions during a time of great transition – my mother’s move to an assisted living situation and the sale of the house we grew up in. At the center of this investigation is the house, located in Starnberg, Germany, which for so many years provided us with a home and, later, after we moved out, a home base when we came to visit. One theme I am exploring is the often tense and contentious e-mail exchange with my sisters about the work that is to be done to complete the project of selling the house. Another theme is the house itself and the memories associated with it as we were growing up in a father-less family.