With 51 Birch Street, Doug
Block has created a documentary around his journey to understand his
parents as people, not just parents, and to understand their marriage
in that light. In addition to many conversations with family members,
the film includes insight drawn from years of his mother's journals,
which were discovered after her death. (The journals include all kinds
of information most adults would rather not know about their mothers).
Overall, the film is touching, sometimes funny, often sad, but somehow
not depressing. It seems to say, "This is life. This is what it means
to be human. We all have variations on the same stories."
I think the most moving part of the film, for me, is an interview Doug
has with his mother's best friend of many years, Natasha. He asks her
if she thinks his mother would have wanted him to read her journals.
Natasha goes through a long process of thinking and making a string of
"difficult thinking" expressions before she answers emphatically "Yes!"
I love how sure she is after taking the time to think about the issue
from many different angles. I also love what she says to back up her
response: "What a relief for someone to really know us, and still love
us."
The film held many similar moments for me--moments of articulation that
left me feeling that I was understood, not alone. As I talked to both
friends and strangers after the screening, it became clear that I was
not the only one to be moved in that way. We all have our own, unique
stories, yet we are all connected. Films like 51 Birch Street simply bring that connection into the light.
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