DIRECTING AND PRODUCING
My Babushkas
COMING SOON
My Babushkas is a magical realist, non-fiction film that tells the story of a series of visits from my long-dead, Eastern European, Jewish, female ancestors. Mysterious, primal, and completely unexpected, these women came to me during the three week period before I was diagnosed with Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma, a type of cancer. As I lay in bed, chest tight and unable to breathe, I wondered if whatever was growing inside my lungs was going to kill me–and if so, how soon. It was in these moments that the babushkas would reveal themselves. Through breathtaking imagery and rich sound design, My Babushkas uses the experience of my cancer, the terror it surfaces, and the babushkas’ presence to explore larger questions of intergenerational trauma, Jewish identity, ancestral and cellular wisdom, and the likely cause of my illness: exposure to the more than 350 toxins that hung in the air near Ground Zero for months after 9/11. Surprising truths emerge from my experiences with these ancient, wise women. As the film evolves, it chronicles how these truths change me and the way I exist in the world.
Kathy Leichter does that rare thing in art and filmmaking. She translates what is harrowing and inexplicable -- in this case, her mother Nina's decision to end her life -- into something beautiful and meaning-filled. I've seen people react to 'Here One Day' and it goes beyond the normal relationship of audience to documentary. Kathy's offering a kind of guide post toward thinking about mental illness and suicide in new, more constructive ways.
Brian ManN
Reporter and Producer,
NCPR/National Public Radio
When filmmaker Kathy Leichter moved back into her childhood home after her mother's suicide, she discovered a hidden box of audiotapes. Sixteen years passed before she had the courage to delve into this trove, unearthing details that her mother had recorded about every aspect of her life from the joys and challenges of her marriage to a State Senator, to her son’s estrangement, to her experiences living with bipolar disorder. Here One Day is a visually arresting, emotionally candid film about a woman coping with mental illness, her relationships with her family, and the ripple effects of her suicide on those she loved.
Here One Day is the centerpiece of a U.S.-based campaign to reduce mental health stigma and isolation, raise awareness, link individuals and families to support, and help change mental health and suicide prevention and postvention policy across the country.
A brilliant film about poverty, welfare reform, and the spirit of the people who suffer both. We will become a better country, with better policies, if every American sees this.
Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology,
City University of New York
Graduate School
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Frances Fox PiveN
A Day's Work, A Day's Pay follows three welfare recipients in New York City from 1997 to 2000 as they participate in the largest welfare-to-work program in the nation. When forced to work at city jobs for well below the prevailing wage and deprived of the chance to go to school, these individuals decide to fight back, demanding programs that will actually help them move off of welfare and into jobs. The film was broadcast nationally on PBS and cable throughout 2002 and 2003 and is available for educational use at New Day Films. (57 mins, color, 2002)
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PASSING ON
Photo by Judy Goldring
Passing On is a portrait of the director’s grandmother, Elsa Leichter, a ninety-one year old Jewish woman who shares with us her wise and witty perspectives on life, love, survival, and loss. A self-described “second-chancer,” Elsa lived over thirty years in Vienna before fleeing to the United States during World War II. Her new life in America included a second career, a second marriage, and a new identity as an independent, tell-it-like-it-is Grandma. (43 mins, color, 2004)