Hello and welcome! Thank you for visiting.
I'm an independent filmmaker and Unspeakable is my recently finished film.My home was a solemn one when I was in junior high and high school. My sister and brother were away at college, and I was by myself with my parents. My father was depressed, and neither my mother nor I understood it or knew how to handle it.
Then, when I was seventeen, my father killed himself. I didn't talk about it for over twenty years, and when I finally did, I decided to make a film about it.
I embarked on a process of filmmaking and discovery that transformed every aspect of my life. At first my voice faltered whenever I spoke of my father, eventually I was able to narrate the film. Initially I was angry and accusing, in time I saw my father as a whole and vulnerable person.
Unspeakable talks about a successful doctor, an iconic American father, increasingly alienated from his family as he withdraws into depression. It probes the destructiveness of maintaining a family image. It has home movies, actors, photos, drawings, paintings, trees, water, everything with which to tell the story.
People rarely talk about suicide. Unspeakable is my effort to speak about it. I hope it is meaningful to those of you who have lost loved ones in this way.Unspeakable probes the universal relationship between father and daughter, parents and children. Those who haven't experienced suicide close to them find resonance with the film as well.
Sincerely,
Sally Heckel
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