Documentary: 'Open Eye - Open I'
A Dutch-Israeli photographer uses her art to learn more about her father and his experience surviving the Holocaust. In the process, she learns more about herself.
By the Hot Zone Team, Mon May 7, 12:16 PM ET
Note: This is part of an ongoing series of special documentary features on the Hot Zone. We're posting excerpts of the films, which reflect some of the themes and issues covered on this site.
Photographer Shirley Barenholz says she has spent her career using her camera to explore people's emotions. In her documentary, 'Open Eye - Open I,' Barenholz turns the camera on herself as she explores her own emotions as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor.
Shirley's father, Bert Barenholz, was a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen during World War II, an experience he never discusses with his daughter.
Shirley says her father's tendency to hold his emotions in passes a burden to her, leaving her with a similar desire to repress her emotions.
Shirley says this effect can be changed through art. During the course of the documentary, Shirley uses her work as a "creative tool for opening the heart." By creating a survivor art exhibit in Germany, Shirley encourages her father to open up about his past.
'Open Eye - Open I' weaves two narratives together: Shirley struggles to open her joint art exhibit while developing her relationship with her father.
In this clip from 'Open Eye - Open I,' Shirley, her father and a friend are in Germany looking for the home Bert Barenholz lived in before his family fled to Holland. Mr. Barenholz describes his experience in Holland, and for the first time in Shirley's life, lets go of his feelings.
During her search for others' emotions, Shirley and her father find their own.
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