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HBO: This is obviously a very personal story. Why did you
want to make the film?
Jay Rosenblatt: This is a film that's been in me for a long time. I just
didn't know exactly how it would turn out, or what kind
of film it would be. But I knew at some point in my life
I would deal with this early trauma in my family. Deal
with it somewhat creatively in film. It kind of grew
organically and turned into the film it is. And having
gone through that I thought it would be a good point of
departure to talk about different aspects of grief and
loss.
HBO: You've structured the movie non-traditionally. Was that
intentional or did that evolve out of the making of it?
Jay Rosenblatt: The chapter structure grew out of the making of it. Like
I said, it was kind of an organic process, evolving
through editing. The actual poetic elements, the use of
metaphor--that was planned. Now, not all of the
different images were planned, but many of them were.
I had some ideas that I wanted to either film or find, in
terms of, like, archival imagery.
HBO: And how did that work? Were those images in your
mind that you then went out and found?
Jay Rosenblatt: Well, for instance, in the section, 'Collapse' there's all
these buildings that are imploding. I had the notion of
the idea of collapse. And I thought I would show it
through structures collapsing. And then I found all
these shots of implosions. So again, that was sort of
like a metaphor for an emotional state after losing
someone that's close to you. There's a section called
'Sorrow' and I knew that I wanted public displays of
grief because that's a kind of counterpoint to the very
private grief that my family went through - so private
that we didn't even grieve together. So I searched for
those kind of images. And then some things just came
out of the process of interviewing and editing. I had
interviewed a phantom limb patient. And then while my
assistant and I were researching, looking for footage, we
came across this amputation footage. The actual film is
called, I think, Hot and Cold Procedures in Hospital
Setting. So we had no idea what we were looking at.
And then all of a sudden we see this amputation footage
which seemed to be perfect to show while this man was
talking about his syndrome. And then some other things
came about that way. I came across this film that
showed a Jewish funeral. And I have this interview
with a cemetery owner. And, not prompted by me, he
started talking about Jewish funerals. So it seemed
perfect while he was talking about it to cut to a re-
enactment of a Jewish funeral, which is what the film
was. And it kind of reflects and reverberates back to my
family's story, because I didn't attend my brother's
funeral. So I was able to show a Jewish funeral on film,
again reflecting off that initial personal story.
HBO: What is a phantom limb?
Jay Rosenblatt: It's this experience of people who have lost a limb who
have this sensation that the limb is still there. And
many of them still feel pain where the limb was. So it
seemed like the perfect metaphor for losing a loved one,
where you have lost them but you still feel that they're
there and you still feel the pain of the loss.
HBO: And the twelve stages you explore, did that idea come,
in part, out of the work of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross?
Jay Rosenblatt: Well, she was a pioneer in talking about stages of grief.
I think she has five stages of grief.
HBO: Yes.
Jay Rosenblatt: I didn't want to follow that religiously. I wanted to just
use the notion of stages, but make it more personalized.
She doesn't have something called 'Communication',
like my film has. She has anger, denial, bargaining,
depression and acceptance. I have some of those, but
not all of them. Again, I wanted to just loosely follow
the notion of stages of grief. And I wanted twelve
because that number seems to have significance -
twelve months of the year and the whole issue of time is
so integrally related to grieving. So it just seemed like
the right number to have.
HBO: Your previous films have also used personal material.
Jay Rosenblatt: Quite a bit. This is not entirely new for me. But this
was such a personal and private and traumatic
experience that it went beyond what I've done in the
past. To me, having something personal as a way of
starting the film, I think, tells the viewer how much of a
stake I have in the film. And also I think people can't
help but be affected by a certain honesty that is revealed
in the beginning. And it's a way of, hopefully, pulling
the viewer in, and then going off on other aspects that
are not that personal. I didn't want it to just be only a
personal story. I thought it would open it more if I
brought in other people speaking in the form of
interviews and then just other imagery that wasn't
directly personal. Maybe more indirectly personal.
HBO: You previously worked as a therapist. How did that
inform your work in this film?
Jay Rosenblatt: Well, I think many of my films have a real
psychological feel to them, a psychological component.
And I think part of my motivation - not my entire
motivation, but part of my motivation in making films is
to bring people together, in a sense, to explore our
shared humanity. And that's also the same goals one
has a therapist, which is to help people integrate into the
human condition, and to help them heal. And I think
there is a healing component to many of my films. So
there is a shared motivation, just working with a
different form.
HBO: Was making the film helpful for you?
Jay Rosenblatt: It certainly was cathartic and healing in many respects.
Just to channel that energy into something that could
actually help other people was important to me. And it
actually was very healing to show it to my parents. So it
was personally cathartic and healing, and hopefully will
also be for other people. I tried to use my personal story
only as a point of departure, but really tried to make this
as universal as I could. That was the big challenge with
the film.
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