Filmmaker Linda Brown's father embodied 1960s masculinity. But when a devastating stroke leaves him vulnerable and dependent, Linda decides to confront the silence surrounding his troubled and violent past. Drawing on home movies, family photos and interviews, she reveals secrets, uncovers lies, and discovers a redeeming treasure in a lost family video. The result is an engrossing journey about the danger of carrying unresolved grief to our graves. You See Me is a brave, inspiring and empowering film that documents the essence of the human condition and seeks to face the past with courage in order to change the future.—Linda J. Brown
Why is it important to make sense of ones parents? What is to be gained from understanding them, especially in late life? How do we lay to rest a family member who has repeatedly hurt others and caused pain?
What begins as an intimate, autobiographical story about loss and grief evolves into a universal look at the impact of trauma, the tragedy of mental illness and the meaning of family.
Combing through all the Super 8 and VHS footage her father ever filmed, Brown turns the familys apparently blissful life as a nuclear family unit on its head. Who was this man who inflicted fits of violent rage upon them all, most of all upon their mother?
The result is an engrossing film about the danger of taking unresolved grief to our graves, and the consequences of neglecting to confront and treat deep rooted emotional painfor our children, and our childrens children. As we witness a vital new bond form between mother and daughter across the generational divide, far reaching truths, about patterns of behavior, family dynamics and gender roles are observed. Behind the images of happiness projected through home movies is a more complex, nuanced story about the legacy of unarticulated pain, secrets and lies.
You See Me is an inspiring, engaging and empowering film, a bittersweet love song and lament. It will help others break cycles of abuse with its powerful example of how, by using our innate intelligence, creativity and intuition, we are all capable of exploring our own family history to access undercurrents that, like the rings of water that ripple out on the familys ponda recurring visual motif in the filmcontinue to touch us in the present.
