Just a Tease

This mini-film, a little gem created by Mike Enns (www.ennsvisuals.com), is a small taste of things to come. A whetting of the appetite, if you will.

In a few short months we’ll be flying over the Atlantic Ocean and landing in Hamburg, Germany with a whole lot of filming gear in tow. From there, the train will take us further north to stop in a town called Eutin. Surrounded by rose bushes and linden trees, there’s an old white and blue painted station to greet us when we hop off the train.

It’s in this town, we’ll take our time to set up the story that I have been piecing together for well over a year now. It comes complete with a town centre, a church tower with bells that ding on the hour and a castle on the lake. Oh, and they brew beer there, too. Sounds like paradise, right?

This past year and a bit, I’ve been sifting through old papers, digging up files, reading letters and interviewing family and friends who knew my mother. I have traveled to Germany, California, Winnipeg, and Montreal. It’s been quite a whirlwind of jet-setting and train rides! Still, I have a lot of unanswered questions about the story of my mother’s childhood – specifically, the 3 years that she and her mother spent there as refugees after WWII ended. I have discovered that it’s much more than the amusing tales that my mother used to tell my sister and I. It’s not just about skipping school and playing by the lake water. It’s more a story about loneliness, tragedy, and loss. Interestingly, that’s not the impression I got from my mother – this is what I have realized from my research.

This project has been and continues to be a gateway to get to know my mother the way that I believe she wanted me to. Knowing her as a child, informs me of who she was as a woman.

Knowing someone’s story is the portal to understanding. 

Sometimes, to get to know a story you have to live it, feel it and smell it – basically walk in their footsteps. That’s the heart of the Cherries in the Sun project.

The full length documentary will take some time to create …  but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this little tease.