51 Birch Street

DOUG BLOCK and his father, Mike, in "51 Birch Street"

Filmmaker learns more about his parents

Doug Block is a documentary filmmaker.
His parents, Mike and Minna, were approaching their 50th wedding anniversary. It was a natural he record the event, doing interviews with his mom and dad, sisters and friends.
Plus Mike was always aloof. The family really didn’t know that much about Dad. He was the typical 50s dad. An intelligent man, he was an engineer who fought in World War II. If he had any insecurities, he didn’t let them be known.
Mike and Minna seemed like a solid couple, although they weren’t what you would call affectionate.
Thus starts the absolutely fascinating movie “51 Birch Street.”
Nothing happens as we expect and after 54 years of marriage, Minna contracts pneumonia and dies.
Minna was a feisty woman. She seemed personable, somebody with a sense of humor. Somebody you would want to meet.
Three months later, Mike takes a vacation in Florida.
He shocks the family by announcing he met his secretary from the 1960s there, Kitty, and they would be married.
There was also something different about Dad. He and Kitty held each other and kissed often. That never happened with Mom.
In fact, we see video of Mike and Minna, in which Minna says of her husband something like, “He’s better than most guys I know. I guess I love him.”
Mike smiles and says, “That’s good.” Not exactly a storybook romance.
Then the questions start popping up. Sisters aren’t exactly thrilled their mother was being replaced, even though they appear to be somewhere in their 50s.
The question comes up, were Dad and Kitty possibly having an affair before Mom died?
Nothing is as it seems and this story grows and grows. The family finds Minna’s diaries, going back to the 1960s.
If Mike was the typical 50s dad, Minna was certainly the typical 1950s mother. She wasn’t a real loving, doting mother. She had her hair done once a week at the beauty parlor. She went out with her friends.
After her death, her best friend speculates that it was difficult for Minna to live in the 1950s. She was intelligent but she was stuck at home playing housewife.
She eventually sought help from a therapist because of her doom and gloom.
Her diary reveals she garnered a huge crush on her therapist and let him know she wanted a sexual relationship. She was rebuffed by the therapist, although her crush lasted for many years.
Eventually, she sought fulfillment by having a sexual relationship with an unnamed family friend.
Being a filmmaker and journalist, this sparks Doug Block to finally ask his father questions about what it was like supporting a family in the 1950s and his relationship with his mother.
He also gets what he believes is the truth about the early relationship of his father and Kitty.
This is one film you will be thinking about for a long time.
Do you really know your parents? Do you know what kind of people they really are, their fears, their insecurities, their relationships within the times they grew up and raised a family?
The extras include a short film on the family since the movie was released. Now Kitty was considered the interloper. Until she saw the movie, she didn’t realize Mike’s daughters were wary of her and upset.
She found the movie so enthralling, she went to see it 24 times.
“51 Birch Street” isn’t just about a family. It’s a snapshot of a time in U.S. history and the way people conducted themselves.
You will find it far more interesting and thought-provoking than much of the fictional films you will see this year.
51 Birch Street
• 1 hour, 30 minutes
• Not rated
• Produced by Copacetic Pictures
• Four stars out of four
This appeared in Weekender December 21, 2007 in the Ashtabula Star Beacon.