In 1999, 11-year-old Nisha Platzer lost her older brother, Josh, to suicide. Twenty years later, her search for a specialized medical treatment leads her to the door of someone who was once exceptionally close to Josh. And so it is that she finally has the chance to truly know her brother through his chosen family. Captured over five years in which synchronicities continually manifested, Platzer’s documentation of these encounters gently asserts that both grieving and healing are meant to be communal experiences.
The resulting back home includes candid interviews, lyrical visuals, evocative motifs, and segments in which filmstock has been hand-processed in seawater, plants, soil, and Josh’s ashes. Eloquently edited, the film establishes a meditative pace that allows a viewer space to reflect upon what’s being imparted and draw parallels to their own experiences. And, as it builds to a quietly staggering close, Platzer’s film instills in a viewer a desire to connect with those they hold dear.
What lives are preserved in film frames? Director Nisha Platzer explores this question with sincerity and poetry in back home... There’s a stark tactility to the images of back home, as well as a haunting, ethereal quality. The film evokes the spirits and memories that linger. back home offers a poignant, personal consideration of family, wellness, and the (im)permanence of all things that walk the earth.
Pat Mullen, POV magazine
Nisha Platzer
Nisha Platzer, Swan, Sara Kendall, Sam Bligh, Zac Bligh, Rebecca Bligh
Canada/Cuba
2022
English
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Executive Producer
John Bolton
Producer
Joella Cabalu, Nisha Platzer
Screenwriter
Nisha Platzer, Jenn Strom
Cinematography
Suzanne Friesen, Flávio Rebouças
Editor
Jenn Strom, Milena Salazar
Production Design
Alexander Nolan
Original Music
Todd Macdonald – Norvaiza
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A Cedar Is Life
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