Is this documentary a "vanity project"? My answer would be no, as director Jacob Bricca takes an even-handed approach to examine and understand the life of his father Kit Bricca.
Emerging from a seemingly abusive home life, Kit Bricca would go on to be a nomadic idealist and activist, organizing and working for causes that he believed in, beginning in the 1960's. These would include the anti-Vietnam War movement, the fight for decent wages and working conditions with the United Farm Workers, Amnesty International, and settling himself and his family at the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence.
However, since activism normally doesn't pay very well, Bricca's quest to "change the world" would lead to financial strife for his family, and eventually result in the break-up of two marriages and estrangement from his children. When Bricca would enter the business world, he could, at times, be highly successful as a salesman, but his personal quest for fulfillment would always lead him away from that arena.
Thus, Jacob finds his father today in a new marriage to Carol Loewenstein, a health educator, and attempting to raise financing for a movie project with his friend and business partner E.F. Wyeth. As the director tries to piece together his father's life, there's a heartfelt segment involving Laura Marcus-Bricca, Kit's daughter from his second marriage. You can sense the love she still feels for her father, despite their lack of contact, yet you can also sense her emotional pain as well.
Overall, I imagine you could look at this documentary a number of different ways. However, as one reviewer on this site succinctly puts it it can be a movie about a son trying to understand his father, a man who put his idealism and attempts to make the world a better place above all else even if the personal costs were enormous. Those costs and scars would also extend to those closest to him.
To note: There were no subtitles available on my DVD copy.
Emerging from a seemingly abusive home life, Kit Bricca would go on to be a nomadic idealist and activist, organizing and working for causes that he believed in, beginning in the 1960's. These would include the anti-Vietnam War movement, the fight for decent wages and working conditions with the United Farm Workers, Amnesty International, and settling himself and his family at the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence.
However, since activism normally doesn't pay very well, Bricca's quest to "change the world" would lead to financial strife for his family, and eventually result in the break-up of two marriages and estrangement from his children. When Bricca would enter the business world, he could, at times, be highly successful as a salesman, but his personal quest for fulfillment would always lead him away from that arena.
Thus, Jacob finds his father today in a new marriage to Carol Loewenstein, a health educator, and attempting to raise financing for a movie project with his friend and business partner E.F. Wyeth. As the director tries to piece together his father's life, there's a heartfelt segment involving Laura Marcus-Bricca, Kit's daughter from his second marriage. You can sense the love she still feels for her father, despite their lack of contact, yet you can also sense her emotional pain as well.
Overall, I imagine you could look at this documentary a number of different ways. However, as one reviewer on this site succinctly puts it it can be a movie about a son trying to understand his father, a man who put his idealism and attempts to make the world a better place above all else even if the personal costs were enormous. Those costs and scars would also extend to those closest to him.
To note: There were no subtitles available on my DVD copy.