 On a bright
spring morning in May, Dr. George Heckel
climbed the stairs to the attic of his home
and killed himself. He had a thriving practice,
a wife and three children, and a beautiful
home. Why would a man who seemed to have
it all take his life and leave his family
devastated? How would they ever recover?
How could he do something so unspeakable?
His daughter, Sally, who was seventeen at the time, grew up to become an independent
filmmaker, but it was only decades after that life-changing event that she was
able to turn her focus to what happened that day, and after all the years in
which she and her family struggled to understand feelings that remained mostly
unspoken.
Heckel weaves home movies of what appears to be an idyllic post-war American
childhood with dramatic silent recreations of a home life that reveal the darker
side of that idyll. Acting as the film's narrator, as well as interviewer, Heckel
gently coaxes her family and friends out of their silence. Through their voice-only
recollections, reminiscences and reflections a fuller story gradually emerges,
as the film circles around the fateful day.
Heckel crafts a layered portrait of a professional man who takes his own life,
a father and daughter unable to communicate, and a family left behind whose members
must pick up the pieces in their own individual ways. The film is at once lyrical
and haunting, potent and soulful, mysterious and penetrating.
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