Filmmaker Statement

In this reflexive essay documentary, Grant Conversano, interrogates the history of their family photos, and what it means to be photographed as a child by one's father. Director's Statement: Susan Sontag said “Reality becomes the shadow, when the image becomes real” This quote was the spine of the film for me as I reflected on my experiences in childhood and the dissonance between what I remember and what was captured on camera by my father, I’ve always had a difficult relationship him because of his alcoholism. Despite all the painful events we’ve lived through, he was convinced that we were a happy family because he said he had the pictures to prove it. I wanted to make this film to understand the history of intergenerational trauma in my family, while interrogating the medium of family photographs, and ask what does it mean to photographed versus being the one who holds the camera?