QNE_p064

QC04282016

64 The Queens Courier • mother’s day • april 28, 2016 for breaking news visit www.qns.com MOTHER’S DAY Bayside-born filmmaker brings her touching movie about the relationship with her mom to North Shore Towers M-O-T-H-E-R By Stephen Vrattos [email protected] “Therapy in 84 minutes.” That’s how award-winning filmmaker and TV producer Gayle Kirshenbaum described her new documentary “Look at Us Now, Mother!,” which chronicles Kirshenbaum’s difficult relationship with her mom and how she was able to turn it around. The film opens Friday, May 6, for a limited run at the Towers Cinema, and Kirshenbaum plans on being at at least one of the run’s early showings for a Q&A following the film. Growing up, Kirshenbaum used to think she was adopted. It was the only way her young mind could reconcile why her brothers were doted on, while she was treated cruelly by her mother. It’s a scenario far removed from the common stereotype of the Jewish mom/daughter relationship of love and companionship and one which continued throughout most of the filmmaker’s life. Kirshenbaum and her mom’s contentious relationship came to a head, quite literally, several years ago when the filmmaker was putting together the award-winning documentary short, “My Nose,” about the filmmaker’s decision to get a nose job after a lifetime of being brow-beaten by her mother over what her mom considered an ugly Jewish schnozz. Mildred— Kirshenbaum’s mother— would often say her daughter’s profile could be used for the Indianhead nickel, among other less-than-bon mots. In fact, the insult inspired a cover feature on The Washington Post, when they reviewed the movie, including a photo of the documentarian’s profile set against that of an actual Indian-head nickel with the quote, “If you had a mother like Gayle Kirshenbaum, you’d better get a psychoanalyst.” Far from abasement, Mildred was thrilled. “Negative or not, I’m on the cover of The Washington Post,” she said, according to Kirshenbaum. Kirshenbaum did better than get a psychoanalyst. She made “Look at Us Now, Mother!” Though having moved at the wee age of five, Kirshenbaum still has vivid recollections of her short time living in Bayside. Her home was one of a row of attached houses on Springfield Boulevard and she would bang on the wall to talk her friend next door. “There was a pediatrician on the corner,” she recalled, “and we’d go down to Alley Pond to play.” Kirshenbaum’s father was a funeral director, which was awkward for the young filmmaker when asked what her father did for a living. Her dad pulling up to the school in a hearse certainly didn’t assuage the situation. Still, Kirshenbaum made the best of it, telling her friends there was a dead body in a closet in the basement, going so far as to lead them into the bowels of the house to prove her story. “I’d stand with them outside the door with my hand on the knob and ask them, ‘you sure you want to see it?’” she said. “They’d always chicken out and run from the house!” Years later, she drafted a proposal for a series, called “Kaiser Mortuary,” which took place in a funeral home and featured a ghost of the father of the current director. The proposal floated around HBO for a while without result. Not long after, however, the HBO drama “Six Feet Under” debuted. “You can’t copyright an idea,” Kirshenbaum pointed out, matter-of-factly. It is this ability to “suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” and persevere, nay flourish, which is emblematic of the filmmaker’s life and so compelling. Kirshenbaum’s tenacity and resiliency have served her well. She sees obstacles as “an opportunity to learn,” and talked her way into her first film project. Leaving a successful career in advertising behind her, she picked up a camera for the first time and made a documentary for the PBS affiliate in Los Angeles about an historic manse bequeathed to UCLA, entitled “Doumeni House.” The result earned her an Emmy and a new career trajectory. Kirshenbaum has since created and/or produced successful television series, reality shows and documentaries for such prominent stations as HBO, TLC and Discovery Health, with others currently in various stages of production. She’s been widely featured in the media, including The New York Times, NBC’s Today Show, CBS’s Early Show, Fox TV, Oxygen TV, The Ladies Home Journal, The Washington Post and O Magazine. With “Look at Us Now, Mother!” Kirshenbaum hopes to help others, like herself. “Anybody who is still hanging onto anger and resentment,” she explained. “I wanted to make a film to inspire, to help, to encourage and teach people how to get to a place where they can forgive someone.” Photos courtesy of Gayle Kirshenbaum Mildred and Gayle Say, Aaah...!


QC04282016
To see the actual publication please follow the link above