'51 Birch Street': Marriage Mysteries Revealed

We told you earlier this week about Doug Block's new documentary, "The Kids Grow Up," now arriving in theaters. For that feature film, Block turned the camera on his daughter Lucy -- from birth until she left home for college at 17. Block's 2006 film, "51 Birch Street" (pictured), intimately chronicles the 54-year marriage of his parents.

It's featured in its entirety this week for free on SnagFilms.com, and it's well worth your attention.

Filmmaker Doug Block had every reason to believe his parent’s 54-year marriage was a good one. So he isn’t prepared when, just a few months after his mothers’ unexpected death, his 83-year old father, Mike, phones to announce that he’s moving to Florida to live with “Kitty”, his secretary from 40 years before. Always close to his mother and equally distant from his father, he’s stunned and suspicious. When Mike and Kitty marry and sell the longtime family home, Doug returns to suburban Long Island with camera in hand for one last visit. And there, among the lifetime of memories being packed away forever, he discovers 3 large boxes filled with his moms’ daily diaries going back well over 35 years. Realizing he has only a few short weeks before the movers come and his dad will be gone for good, the veteran documentarian sticks around, determined to investigate the mystery of his parents’ marriage. Through increasingly candid conversations with family members and friends, and constantly surprising diary revelations, Doug finally comes to peace with two parents who are far more complex and troubled than he ever imagined.

Both unexpectedly funny and heartbreaking, 51 Birch Street is the first-person account of Block’s unpredictable journey through a whirlwind of dramatic life-changing events: the death of his mother, the uncovering of decades of family secrets, and the ensuing reconciliation with his father. What begins as his own intimate, autobiographical story, soon evolves into a broader meditation on the universal themes of love, marriage, fidelity and the mystery of family. 51 Birch Street spans 60 years and 3 generations, and weaves together hundreds of faded snapshots, 8mm home movies and two decades of verité footage. The result is a timeless tale of what can happen when our most fundamental assumptions about family are suddenly called into question.

You'll enjoy the surprises that unfold, and mysteries that are resolved, reminding us how little we really know about even our closest family members. At the same time we come to appreciate how much an intensely personal documentary approach can reveal -- not just about its subjects, but about universal truths that embrace us all.

Watch the entire 90-minute film for free on SnagFilms. Here's a preview:

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