Jay Rosenblatt
2021Phantom Limb
Jay Rosenblatt
Beverly Berning, Tyler Cassity
The death of my seven-year-old brother when I was nine remains a painful and haunting memory. My parents did not know how to cope with the loss of their child and the entire family experienced indescribable pain. Phantom Limb uses this personal story as a point of departure. Whether it is a loss through death or divorce, the stages of grieving are the same. Individuals often go through denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, ultimately, some kind of acceptance, in order to heal. The film is loosely structured according to these stages. Interspersed throughout this poetic documentary are interviews with a cemetery owner, a phantom limb patient and an author of a book about evidence for life after death. Phantom Limb reminds viewers that while grief is painful and isolating, it is a reminder to each of us that life is impermanent. - Jay Rosenblatt
Phantom Limb
The Darkness of Day
Jay Rosenblatt
Beverly Berning, Richard J. Silberg
The Darkness of Day is a haunting meditation on suicide. It is comprised entirely of found 16mm footage that had been discarded. The sadness, the isolation, and the desire to escape are recorded on film in various contexts. Voice-over readings from the journal kept by a brother of the filmmaker’s friend who committed suicide in 1990 intermix with a range of compelling stories, from the poignant double suicide of an elderly American couple to a Japanese teenager who jumped into a volcano, spawning over a thousand imitations. While this is a serious exploration of a cultural taboo, its lyrical qualities invite the viewer to approach the subject with understanding and compassion.
The Darkness of Day
Human Remains
Jay Rosenblatt
Eva Braun, Francisco Franco
Human Remains is a haunting documentary which illustrates the banality of evil by creating intimate portraits of five of the 20th century's most reviled dictators. The film unveils the personal lives of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Francisco Franco and Mao Tse Tung. We learn the private and mundane details of their everyday lives -- their favorite foods, films, habits and sexual preferences. There is no mention of their public lives or of their place in history. The intentional omission of the horrors for which these men were responsible hovers over the film.
Human Remains
King of the Jews
Jay Rosenblatt
Jay Rosenblatt
King of the Jews is a film about anti-Semitism and transcendence. Utilizing Hollywood movies, 1950's educational films, personal home movies and religious films, the filmmaker depicts his childhood fear of Jesus Christ. These childhood recollections are a point of departure for larger issues such as the roots of Christian anti-Semitism.
King of the Jews
The Smell of Burning Ants
Jay Rosenblatt
Richard J. Silberg
A haunting documentary on the pains of growing up male. It explores the inner and outer cruelties that boys perpetrate and endure. The film provokes the viewer to reflect on how our society can deprive boys of wholeness.
The Smell of Burning Ants
Short of Breath
Jay Rosenblatt
A woman is reduced to tears. She bends over backwards trying to be a good wife and mother. Her head is cut off from her heart. A doctor picks her brain. A boy inherits his mother's depression. Short of Breath is a haunting, emotional collage about birth, death, sex and suicide. It's like a punch in the stomach.
Short of Breath
When You Awake
Jay Rosenblatt
An unscientific and comedic study of what happens when two people are hypnotized leading into an exhilarating journey into the unconscious mind (the repository for fears, desires, aggression, dreams) where all the images, sounds and music are from found footage.
When You Awake
Four Questions for a Rabbi
Jay Rosenblatt
When Stacey Ross unexpectedly died in 2007, her friends contacted filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt to complete a project she had only just begun. The result is FOUR QUESTIONS FOR A RABBI, a film that touches upon issues of identity, persecution and mortality.
Four Questions for a Rabbi
