Grandpa Ernest Speaks

In 1939, a young Jew named Ernest Lowy escapes from his native Czechoslovakia, seeking safety for his family as World War II intensifies. In the late 1980s, the now elderly Ernest tells the story of his life during a 75-minute tape at his home in New York City. This is the first and only time his children and grandchildren have heard him talk about the Holocaust or his life before he emigrated to the U.S. Another three decades later, filmmaker Madeleine Bazil finally decides to do something with the late great-grandfather's audio memoir she never met. We follow Bazil for three years as she plans a journey to follow in Ernest's footsteps across two continents: investigating the man himself, as well as how his life story affects his family to this day. Bringing together a multitude of testimonies, archival artifacts and perspectives, the documentary exemplifies the fragmented non-linearity of memory as well as reflects the complexity of our own individual identities. A poetic and self-reflective 29' documentary, where Grandfather Ernest examines the nature of post-traumatic memory: how it is transmitted, archived and witnessed; and how each generation and descendant carries memory in its own way.