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Phantom Limb
a film about grief and loss Written and directed by Jay Rosenblatt
28 minutes • Beta SP & 35mm • color/B&W • 2005 Winner of 13 Awards "A 28-minute tour de force... a beautiful and original exploration of grief and loss."
–Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
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.
REVIEWS
"Phantom Limb can only be called - deep breath - an art film. The film is an impressionistic, anti-verite project, which suits the melancholy material; much of this meditation on grief is rendered soundlessly, using archival images, intertitles and the lonesome music of Arvo Part. Art on television - in small doses, it's surprising how easy it goes down." –Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle “Rosenblatt’s camera bears witness to something beyond aloneness, rage, or even grief: people’s truly death-defying capacity for resistance and recovery.” -Abby Stein, Associate Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice “Loosely structured around the stages of grief, it’s visceral, poetic, intelligent, and, finally, affirmative.” -Jonathan Kiefer, San Francisco Magazine “A richly crafted portrait of absence/presence that thoughtfully weaves together intimate and candid interviews with unexpectedly transcendent cultural ephemera.” Bryan Konefsky, Professor, Department of Cinematic Arts , University of New Mexico “Phantom Limb has that strange, rare and haunting power of being something new each way and every time you look at it.” -Richard Sowada , Director, Revelation Perth International Film Festival “A brilliant work of art.” -Ulla Jacobsen, Dox Magazine
AWARDS
First Prize - Black Maria Film & Video Festival
SCREENINGS
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
CREDITS
Producer, Director, Writer & Editor: Jay Rosenblatt  |
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