prisoner of her past
sonia reich - who survived the holocaust as a child by running and hiding - suddenly believes that she is being hunted again, 60 years later. prisoner of her past is the story of a woman who... see full summary »
“one of the remaining wonders of our technological time is the power of the documentary to refute propaganda and deal with the true tragedies of history. “prisoner of her past” is such a work… be brave enough to sit for an hour. you will never forget it. ” — stanley crouch, new york daily news
sonia reich - who survived the holocaust as a child by running and hiding - suddenly believes that she is being hunted again, 60 years later. prisoner of her past is the story of a woman who appeared to be a normal, self - sufficient adult until she ran out of her house in the middle of the night, convinced that someone was trying
to put a bullet in [ her ] head .
in effect, sonia was re - enacting the traumatic events of her lost childhood. separated from her family, she was deprived of 5 years of adolescence, as she fled from the nazis during the second world war. during that time, we know that her mother and most of her extended family were killed in mass executions. we also know that she was starving, frostbitten, constantly endangered and, as one psychiatrist described it ,
a jungle child .
what she witnessed and how she survived, we may never know. she refuses to discuss her past. prisoner of her past is a documentary film that tells the story of sonia and her son, chicago tribune ...
what helps the children most is telling their stories, sharing their experiences, learning that others have gone through similar passages of pain. this is something that sonia never had the chance to do and was never even encouraged to explore. she has always felt deeply alone living with her past, truly a perpetual prisoner of that past who, tragically, can never be set free .
until february 15, 2001, howard reich’s mother, sonia, had managed to keep almost everything about her experience of the holocaust from her son. that night, she packed some clothes and fled her house in skokie, illinois, convinced that someone was trying to kill her. this was the first indication that she was suffering from late - onset post traumatic stress disorder, a little - known condition that can emerge decades after the initial trauma. for howard, it was also the opening of a window onto his mother’s past. in prisoner of her past, howard reich has written a moving memoir about growing up as the child of holocaust survivors and finding refuge from silence and fear in the world of jazz. it is only when sonia’s memories overwhelm her and howard begins to piece together her story that he comes to understand how his parents’ lives shaped his own. the paperback edition includes an epilogue by the author that relates developments since the publication of the cloth edition .
prisoner of her past tells the haunting story of a secret childhood trauma resurfacing, sixty years later, to unravel the life of holocaust survivor sonia reich. the film follows her son, chicago tribune jazz critic howard reich, as he journeys across the united states and eastern europe to uncover why his mother believes the world is conspiring to kill her. along the way, he finds a family he never knew he had. howard also finds psychiatrists in new orleans helping traumatized children who survived hurricane katrina, so they will not re - experience their childhood terrors as his mother now does .
an aging holocaust survivor believes everyone is trying to kill her - sixty years after her tragic childhood. her son travels the world to uncover his mother' s secret past, along the way discovering a family he never knew he had and illuminating a little - known illness: late - onset post traumatic stress disorder .
a psychiatrist, whom howard consults about this, tells him that his mother was
on guard duty ,
protecting her family. the bad people were still out there after them. one time, sonia was discovered walking down the street late at night in their hometown of skokie, a predominantly jewish suburb of chicago. she was carrying her clothes in two brown shopping bags, escaping from the evil men who still wanted to put a bullet in her head. the psychiatrist says that sonia is reliving her past :
the holocaust has begun again .
but perhaps in her mind it never stopped .
the haunting story of a secret childhood trauma resurfacing, sixty years later, to unravel the life of holocaust survivor sonia reich. her son, chicago tribune jazz critic howard reich, tries to uncover why his mother thinks the world is out to kill her .
while howard and leon are visiting a jewish cemetery in warsaw, leon decides that he wants to visit sonia in america because he thinks that seeing him might help her. in a scene that is almost otherworldly, sonia refuses to recognize leon when he walks into her room at the nursing home. howard shows her an old picture of her and leon sitting with her grandfather, but she refuses to look. she doesn' t want to speak to leon, refers to him as a stranger butting in on her private conversation with her son. she won' t even look at leon, but pays excessively close attention to her can of diet coke. later, outside in the corridor of the nursing home, leon says ,
i am crushed .
he can' t help feeling so, even though he and howard had earlier discussed sonia' s possible negative reaction to his visit .
howard reich has been an award - winning chicago tribune arts critic and writer since 1983. he is also a correspondent for downbeat magazine. in addition to covering jazz, blues, gospel, and world music for the tribune, he has authored several investigative reports that have been featured on abc’s nightline and various national public radio programs. he is the author of three other books: the first and final nightmare of sonia reich: a son’s memoir (2006); jelly’s blues: the life, music, and redemption of jelly roll morton (2003), written with william gaines; and van cliburn (1993). he most recently wrote, produced, and narrated a documentary film about his mother’s unspoken holocaust childhood, prisoner of her past. reich graduated from northwestern university’s school of music .
howard' s mother, sonia, a holocaust survivor, is living in a nursing home in illinois and is having unusual trouble dealing with her life. she can' t escape her past, yet it' s impossible for her to confront it. she lives in a state of almost constant paranoia. it turns out that she is suffering from what is termed
late onset post traumatic stress disorder
stemming from her horrible experiences as a child, running and hiding from the nazis and their collaborators. she still fears that
they' re going to give me a bullet in the head .
it is heartbreaking to see sonia, who otherwise appears to be a healthy and intelligent woman, so completely immersed in her delusions .
howard decides that he must find out more about his mother' s past, to try to better understand her mental pain. so he takes a trip to eastern europe, to visit the places where his mother and other members of his family struggled to survive. he and a few others - - including sonia' s polish cousin leon, also a survivor - - visit the small town of dubno in the ukraine where, at ten years old, sonia' s parents sent her out of her home into the world outside because it was the best chance she had to stay alive. she hid and fled from the evil ones for years. it is hard to imagine how traumatic that must have been .
after sixty years, sonia’s childhood trauma returns as delusion. her son, a journalist, pursues her hidden story. the film follows chicago tribune jazz critic howard reich as he journeys across the united states and eastern europe to uncover why his mother believes that the world is conspiring to kill her. along the way, he finds a family he never knew he had…
is now available for streaming and download worldwide via itunes, amazon, google play and vhx. the film tells the haunting story of a secret childhood trauma resurfacing, sixty years later, to unravel the life of holocaust survivor sonia reich. her son, chicago tribune arts critic howard reich journeys across the united states and eastern europe to uncover why his mother believes the world is conspiring to kill her .
howard notes a striking difference between sonia and leon. unlike sonia, leon is able to confront his past and even retain a few positive memories from his experiences. howard says ,
leon is not afraid to look at his past. my mother can' t go there. she is fighting that past, and he is accepting it .
the reason for this is that leon was helped in his plight by a czech family .
leon actually had a childhood. my mother had years of flight and terror. she never had an opportunity to learn how to trust, and leon did .
later, leon very movingly pays tribute to the father of that family who saved his life and also, he knows now, kept him from falling into a spiritual well of hopeless paranoia .
howard and leon talk to many of the local ukrainians. one elderly woman takes them out to a field where she witnessed as a little girl the slaughter of hundreds of jews - - not by the nazis, but by other ukrainians. she shudders at the memory of it. howard asks her ,
how do you know they were ukranians ?
she looks stunned for a moment and then says ,
because they were speaking ukrainian .
since sonia, like many other survivors, has always been reluctant to talk about the terrible times she has lived through, some of her past behavior witnessed by howard and his sister when they were growing up is only now beginning to make sense. they relate many instances that, at the time, did not strike them as particularly abnormal. for instance, howard recalls waking up in the middle of the night and seeing his mother sitting on the floor in their living room, alert, staring out the front window at the street .
sonia reich was barely nine when she witnessed the execution of 12, 000 jews in easternmost poland. she was among 100 odd people who escaped. sixty years on, the childhood trauma has returned to haunt her. now settled in us, sonia is perennially terrified that the world is out to kill her. her son, howard, now undertakes an arduous journey across us and eastern europe to find out why her mother feels this way. along the way he meets his family that he never knew existed. a brilliant film by gordon quinn, kartemquin films, on the little known medical problem: late - onset post traumatic stress disorder, a phenomenon that brings the long buried traumas back to life .
with a noted tradition of nurturing emerging talent and acting as a leading voice for independent media, kartemquin is building on more than 50 years of history as chicago’s documentary powerhouse .
in a change of pace at the end of the film, howard tells of his visit to new orleans in the wake of hurricane katrina, where he listens to other victims of post traumatic stress: children whose homes were destroyed and who were displaced, separated from their friends and family. one girl reveals a chilling fact: no matter where she is, she always keeps a suitcase packed with clothing and other necessities close at hand in case she needs to evacuate. howard remarks that his mother still has those two brown shopping bags packed and ready to go in her room at the nursing home .
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jazz critic howard reich, is one of the most emotionally wrenching yet rewarding films i have recently seen .
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gordon quinn to give university of chicago' s 2016 robert h. kirschner, md, human rights memorial lecture
* rebroadcast on wttw in honor of holocaust remembrance day * may 6, 3: 00pm check local listings here .
at least nowadays, howard says, many of these kids are getting help, the kind of help that was not available to his mother and other holocaust survivors back in the forties and fifties when they sorely could have used it .
for many years, howard reich has been the superlative jazz critic and writer for the chicago tribune. this documentary reveals his incredible personal history as a second - generation member of a family of ukranian jewish holocaust survivors. the film focuses mainly on his elderly mother, who after years of uneventful life in the chicago area, resisting mr. reich' s and his sister' s attempts to talk about her experiences, suddenly begins to
act out
her wartime traumas. his mother is diagnosed with post - traumatic stress disorder (ptsd), and mr. reich, in efforts to find out what actually happened to his mother, ends up locating long - lost and never - seen relatives both in the us and in europe, with both positive and disturbing results. at only one hour long, this is an engrossing and fascinating true - life detective story .
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in one scene, howard, who looks to be in his forties, and leon' s thirty - something son peter take time out to compare notes about their experiences as children hearing adults constantly talking about politics, the holocaust, and the war. howard says that the older folks were always angry, always shouting about one thing and another, always worrying that someone was still after the jews. it got to the point where howard immersed himself in music, playing his piano louder and louder to drown out the disturbing talk. peter says his father never stopped talking about the past, and that after a while, it all just went in one ear and out the other .
lakeith stanfield and his sorry to bother you crew reveal their most soul - crushing jobs in our freewheeling interview .
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sixty years after the war, a survivor is running and hiding again ...
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prisoner of her past is a 2010 documentary film , produced by kartemquin films , that follows the journey of chicago tribune music critic howard reich as he travels to europe to discover why his elderly mother , sonia reich , believes people are trying to kill her . inspired by conversations with young trauma survivors in post-katrina new orleans , howard reich begins to discover a secret that his mother , sonia , had kept hidden for over 60 years . for most of her adult life , sonia reich was a well adjusted and self-sufficient woman , but now in her eighties , sonia is suffering from late-onset post traumatic stress disorder . in order to understand his mother 's past , howard reich travels to eastern europe to discover that sonia spent her adolescence fleeing the nazis during world war ii . meeting some of sonia 's distant relatives and childhood friends , howard begins to unravel what his mother has always refused to speak about . having lost most of her family to the holocaust , sonia spent five years as a " jungle child " , starving and constantly on the run . now as sonia tries to forget her past , howard attempts to ease her pain and confront the horrors that haunted her . prisoner of her past was directed by gordon quinn , a founder of kartemquin films . the film was produced by joanna rudnick and chicago tribune journalist , howard reich , with associate producer , zak piper . the film was a co-production of kartemquin films and the chicago tribune . prisoner of her past was the february 2010 winner of the accolade competition 's best of show award . 
prisoner of her past is a 2010 documentary film, produced by kartemquin films, that follows the journey of chicago tribune music critic howard reich as he travels to europe to discover why his elderly mother, sonia reich, believes people are trying to kill her. inspired by conversations with young trauma survivors in post-katrina new orleans, howard reich begins to discover a secret that his mother, sonia, had kept hidden for over 60 years. for most of her adult life, sonia reich was a well adjusted and self-sufficient woman, but now in her eighties, sonia is suffering from late-onset post traumatic stress disorder. in order to understand his mother's past, howard reich travels to eastern europe to discover that sonia spent her adolescence fleeing the nazis during world war ii. meeting some of sonia's distant relatives and childhood friends, howard begins to unravel what his mother has always refused to speak about. having lost most of her family to the holocaust, sonia spent five years as a " jungle child ", starving and constantly on the run. now as sonia tries to forget her past, howard attempts to ease her pain and confront the horrors that haunted her. prisoner of her past was directed by gordon quinn, a founder of kartemquin films. the film was produced by joanna rudnick and chicago tribune journalist, howard reich, with associate producer, zak piper. the film was a co-production of kartemquin films and the chicago tribune. prisoner of her past was the february 2010 winner of the accolade competition's best of show award.
prisoner of her past is a 2010 documentary film, produced by kartemquin films, that follows the journey of chicago tribune music critic howard reich as he travels to europe to discover why his elderly mother, sonia reich, believes people are trying to kill her. inspired by conversations with young trauma survivors in post-katrina new orleans, howard reich begins to discover a secret that his mother, sonia, had kept hidden for over 60 years. for most of her adult life, sonia reich was a well adjusted and self-sufficient woman, but now in her eighties, sonia is suffering from late-onset post traumatic stress disorder. in order to understand his mother's past, howard reich travels to eastern europe to discover that sonia spent her adolescence fleeing the nazis during world war ii. meeting some of sonia's distant relatives and childhood friends, howard begins to unravel what his mother has always refused to speak about. having lost most of her family to the holocaust, sonia spent five years as a " jungle child ", starving and constantly on the run. now as sonia tries to forget her past, howard attempts to ease her pain and confront the horrors that haunted her. prisoner of her past was directed by gordon quinn, a founder of kartemquin films. the film was produced by joanna rudnick and chicago tribune journalist, howard reich, with associate producer, zak piper. the film was a co-production of kartemquin films and the chicago tribune. prisoner of her past was the february 2010 winner of the accolade competition's best of show award.