WITH HEARTFELT GRATITUDE FOR THE PAINLESS TREATMENT
2008
Originating from an inherited and unexplained collection of autographed photographs of film stars that frequented my grandfather Dr Ignatz Lewin’s Berlin dental practice from the mid 20’s until he immigrated to the USA in 1938, the film is a re-imagining, shot with a nod to silent German Cinema, of the dental practice and its fascinating patients. The story is full of holes, the evidence a group of glamorous photographs, a set of crystal dishes engraved with a Jewish star and a few mythical tales passed down through generations. The film does not try to sew together the pieces, but to understand history as fragmentary and as a place for the imagination.
Originating from an inherited and unexplained collection of autographed photographs of film stars that frequented my grandfather Dr Ignatz Lewin’s Berlin dental practice from the mid 20’s until he immigrated to the USA in 1938, the film is a re-imagining, shot with a nod to silent German Cinema, of the dental practice and its fascinating patients. The story is full of holes, the evidence a group of glamorous photographs, a set of crystal dishes engraved with a Jewish star and a few mythical tales passed down through generations. The film does not try to sew together the pieces, but to understand history as fragmentary and as a place for the imagination.