Trauma Cinema: Documenting Incest and the Holocaust

270 Pages·2005·61.388 MB·English

by  Janet Walker

Trauma Cinema

Trauma Cinema
DOCUMENTING INCEST AND THE HOLOCAUST
Janet
Walker
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEY LOS ANGELES LONDON
Chapter 2 of this book was originally published as chapter 7 in Endless Night:
Cinema and Psychoanalysis, Parallel Histories, edited by Janet Bergstrom.
Copyright © 1999 The Regents of the University of California. Reprinted
by permission of the University of California Press.
Extracts from the following previously published essays by Janet Walker
appear in revised form throughout Trauma Cinema by permission of the
publishers and /or copyright holders:
"The Traumatic Paradox: Documentary Film, Historical Fictions, and
Cataclysmic Past Events," Signs 22:4 (Summer 1997): 803-25. Copyright
©1997 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Revised as "The
Traumatic Paradox: Autobiographical Documentary and the Psychology
of Memory," in Contested Pasts: The Politics of Memory, edited by Katharine
Hodgkin and Susannah Radstone and published by Routledge. Copyright
© 2003 Janet Walker.
"Trauma Cinema: False Memories and True Experience," Screen 42:2 (Summer
2001): 211-16. Reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2005 The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walker, Janet, 1955-.
Trauma cinema : documenting incest and the Holocaust / Janet Walker,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-520-24174-6 (alk. paper)—ISBN 0-520-24175-4 (pbk.:
alk. paper)
1. Documentary films—History and criticism. 2. Documentary films-
History and criticism. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in motion
pictures. 4. Incest in motion pictures. 5. Psychic trauma in motion
pictures. 6. Memory. I. Title.
PN1995.9.D6W26 2005
79i.43'653—dc22 2004014327
Manufactured in the United States of America
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
This book is printed on New Leaf EcoBook 60, containing 60% post-
consumer waste, processed chlorine free; 30% de-inked recycled fiber,
elemental chlorine free; and 10% Fsc-certified virgin fiber, totally chlorine
free. EcoBook 60 is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of
ANSI/ASTM D5634-01 (Permanence of Paper).
Jor Steve

CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS / ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / xi
PREFACE / XV
PART ONE
THE TRAUMATIC PARADOX
i / Catastrophe, Representation, and the
Vicissitudes of Memory / 3
PART TWO
PERSONAL MEMORY: THE CASE OF INCEST
2 / The Excision of Incest from Classical Hollywood Cinema:
Kings Row and Freud / 33
3 / Incest on Television and the Burden of Proof:
Sybil-, Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story;
Liar, Liar; and Divided Memories / 49
4 / Strange Bedfellows—Incest in Trauma Documentaries:
Daughter Rite; Some Nudity Required; the Electronic Diary Series;
Just, Melvin; and Capturing the Friedmans / 82
PART THREE
THE PERSONAL IS PUBLIC HISTORICAL:
(AUTO)BIOGRAPHIES OF THE HOLOCAUST
5 / The Last Days Is Not Shoah—
Experiments in Holocaust Representation:
The March and TakforAlt / 125
6 / Disremembering the Holocaust:
Everything's for You, Second Generation Video,
and Mr. Death / 158
CONCLUSION / 189
NOTES / 195
BIBLIOGRAPHY / 223
VIDEO / FILMOGRAPHY / 237
INDEX / 241
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Lighting the Sabbath candles, reenacted; Tak for Alt / 26
2. "Dance for us, Sweetie"; Some Nudity Required / 92
3. Melvin Just with one of his daughters; Just, Melvin / 105
4. Representing the house to which Judy and Rachel fled;
Tak for Alt / 151
5. Fragmented memory; Tak for Alt / 151
6. Chaim Ravett; Everything's for You / 161
7. Animating family history; Everything's for You / 165
8. Fred Leuchter obtaining rock samples; Mr. Death / 178
9. Another view of Leuchter; Mr. Death / 182
10. Chiseling, reenacted; Mr. Death / 187
IX