• Title:
• 51 Birch Street

• Director:
• Doug Block

• English

• USA, 88 minute

• Venue:
• The Avalon

• Purchase Tickets:
• Show 1  

How well do we ever really know our parents?  In this moving, funny and heart-wrenching documentary, Filmmaker Doug Block delves into the hidden truths of his parent’s seemingly happy 54-year marriage. Three months after his mother’s unexpected death, his father announces he’s moving to Florida to marry his secretary from 40 years before. After this curious declaration, Block returns to his childhood home for one last visit and discovers three boxes of his mother’s diaries, dating back more than three decades. Doug struggles with the decision to read his mother’s private thoughts. The result becomes an exercise in understanding, truthful and open dialogue, forgiveness, and eventual reconciliation between Block and his father. Although this film is an intimate portrait of the Block family, it is also a remarkable example of what can happen when one’s most basic assumptions about family and love are called into question.

Read Anne Hornaday's interview with Doug Block in Saturday's Washington Post.

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