Share Your Story
51 Birch Street and the story of the Block family has had a powerful impact on audiences all over the world. Now we invite you to share your personal reaction to the film, and how it hit home for you regarding your own family.
Kim Przytulski (age 35)
My mom and dad were divorced when I was 2. My dad would come around every so often for dinner and to take my sister and me shopping. It always seemed very sudden when he was in town. I can’t remember ever knowing he was going to be in town until that day. These quick trips, usually no more than a day, left me feeling that my dad never wanted a part in my life. When I was a junior in college, we lost touch completely. I held a lot of resentment in my heart for him. I…
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Violetta dei’Contorni (age 52)
I just finished watching your film and I was captivated. I was moved many times, and it brought up many feelings. I have always been a huge fan of Ross McElwee and Michael Apted’s Up series--I could watch that forever, and I felt that way with this film as well. When I was about 15, my mother sat me down and told me that when she was an infant, in 1920, her mother, presumably in self-defense, shot and killed her father. She also told me that I had an uncle I never knew about because he was in an insane…
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Robert Guinaugh (age 54)
For the last couple years since Doug’s film was released, I have been contemplating whether I should write a screenplay about my parents and the life I lived at 12 Overlook Drive in Port Washington. I was a classmate of Doug’s at Schreiber High School and graduated in the same class. But for a few close friends and my immediate family, no one knew of the sheer hell that my sisters, brother and I lived through with an alcoholic mother. In the 60’s and early 70’s, alcoholism was not something that anyone of prominence would ever admit to. Drunks were…
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Nini Lee (age 44)
I just finished watching the movie. So profound and thought provoking. The film was so personal to Doug and his family, but so appropriate for us all to experience through him.
I am a journal keeper myself. One of the first questions I wanted to ask Doug is if he was glad he read the journals or does he wish he would have left them alone? I think the answer would be that he is satisfied that he read them and has found the balance of love and forgiveness and empathy for his Mother. If you read this…
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Marlys Weis (age 65)
I believe in diaries and journals – as they helped me keep my sanity! When I was 12 years old, my stepfather said I had to “make it up” to him for the fact that my mother didn’t love him, so it was my responsibility to replace her in his affections. I learned to never be alone with him and how to manipulate situations, but I didn’t tell my mother. I instinctively knew the pain it would cause her, and I wanted to protect her from it. My father had died when I was two years old, and she was…
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rob de jongh (age 42)
Dear people, It’s after midnight, April 5th, Amsterdam. I just saw your film on the
Belgian TV and I realized these days I can contact the maker by internet. So
that’s what I’m doing now before I go to bed.
I’d like to express my gratitude for the film and I believe it is of great
value for those who are willing to change the way they see their parents,
whether they’re alive or dead.
Me myself I lost my mother 11 years ago, didn’t have…
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Lea Register (age 60)
Even though I’ve never seen the film, I have read many of the stories on this site.
I suppose the one thing that stands out about my parents and when I became the ‘parent’ is when my father died. He was only 52 when he died. He and my mother had been married for twenty nine years; I was twenty seven at the time. As an only child, all responsibilities feel on me. At first I just didn’t understand and only ‘reacted’ to actions that took place: my mother had a nervous breakdown and tried to commit suicide,…
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Nikki (age 19)
Hi there! I seem to have stepped into this site a little late, however I just saw that this movie was coming to Boise this Friday, so I’m not even sure if anyone will see this since it’s so late =P Anyway my story is not quite the same as most and it’s not exactly finished as you all see i’m only 19. It appears that most who have shared their stories are much older and have their own families. Like I said mine is not over whatsoever but so far seems to be quite a trip. …
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Art Schultz (age 48)
I attended my first ever independent film screening Saturday night at the Flicks in Boise, Idaho. Mostly out of curiosity, partially because of my involvement as a board member of the PIX Theater Foundation, in Nampa, Idaho and the Foundation’s desire to include independent films as part of it’s future venue. And partially out of response to a write up about this particular independent film in the Idaho Statesman.
The film is called “51 Birch Street”, filmed, documented and narrated by Doug Block.
Never having previously attended an independent film screening, or…
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Valerie Matthis (age 53)
Mom lead me on. She did this for the first 18 years of my life. Then one day she admitted that the man who I thought was my father, wasn’t. I felt so betrayed after her confession. I wish that I could say that the situation brought us closer, but it didn’t; there was always a bit of unspoken tension between us. Shortly before her death, Mom started confessing things nonstop; I can honestly say that I guess that I never really knew her. Then there was the matter of her personal effects that told of a life that was…
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