“This is the most documented family in the world,” Henry Nevison, director Sasha Joseph Neulinger’s father proudly says, while filming the loved ones that surround him in the documentary “Rewind.” According to Jacqui Neulinger, Sasha’s mother, her husband was prone to disappear behind the lens at rowdy household get-togethers. After all, a celebration was the perfect time to pull out his video camera. But there was something else going on below the surface— beneath the frames— a terrible secret Henry never told his family about.
READ MORE: Tribeca Film Festival: 15 Must-See Movies
Jacqui and Henry’s son, Sasha was always an extremely engaging child. He was present when interacting with others; he was gifted and joyful. Then something happened. At first, Jacqui and Henry thought it might have something to do with what was going on at school. After scoring very high marks on his standardized tests after Kindergarten, Sasha began displaying frequent withdrawal episodes. One day, while being bathed, he screamed in pain. Jacqui noticed his genitals didn’t look quite right. “There are swords [down there]” Sasha said. His mother asked him what had happened. “Another boy pinched me,” he answered.
READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2019
One day, Sasha began grabbing at Bekah, his little sister’s chest in the back of the car, something he saw as nothing more than a harmless “titty twister.” His mother, Jacqui asked why he was acting so aggressively. Sasha said it was because of Bekah’s “private club with Stuart,” one of his Uncle Howard’s nephews. Jacqui soon realized what was happening and it destroyed her marriage.
“It’s not that I didn’t get love, it’s that I didn’t feel lovable,” Sasha concedes. As a young boy, he’d walk down the stairs holding hands with a relative who was his rapist, before their mother would give this person a hug, and then offer them supper. Minutes earlier, they were having “Uncle/Nephew time” in the bedroom, behind closed doors. Distorting an expression of care with an act of vile dominance can create a black hole of shame for anyone. What’s worse, Sasha’s family almost seemed to be normalizing the abuse he and his sister were enduring. Crawling out of the catacombs of self-deprecating guilt, to feel cared for again, was not easy.
There aren’t enough synonyms for the word courage to do Sasha Joseph Neulinger’s story real justice. “Rewind,” is simply an astounding movie and a milestone in psychiatrically minded filmmaking. Following the director, who was repeatedly sexually abused by his father’s side of the family as a child, Neulinger revisits his dad Henry’s home film canisters, reopening old wounds. The film plays like a memoir of sorts, intercutting family footage with modern-day interviews the director conducts, twenty years after his assault. Relatives and other interested parties (detectives, doctors, attorneys, etc.) reveal to Sasha their side of the situation.
But the most tragic thing is that all this sexual trauma goes much deeper than what happened to Sasha. We learn Henry’s mother ridiculed and emasculated her husband and children, having zero patience emotionally. Henry’s older brothers— one of whom, Howard Nevison would go on to become a renowned opera singer and well-respected cantor at a high-profile synagogue— became abusers; and abuse breeds more abuse. Most victims know their assaulter and most sexual perpetrator’s themselves were molested as children. Sasha’s dad, Henry was another victim. He never told a soul what happened to him. He was too ashamed to. Henry never told his wife that they were bringing child abusers into their home.
Apart from select recollections of detailed descriptions from a few personal accounts, the doc makes a point not to overplay its potentially explicit nature. This isn’t a film worried about manipulating feeling in a specific manner, its concern is bringing that sensation back to those who have forgotten how to feel it. One very intense sequence adds an ominous layer to the score that feels a tad too heavy, but this is essentially the only bit that overly accentuates an implicit idea emotionally.
Neulinger has become an inspirational motivator who inspired the creation of a child advocacy center, Mission Kids. Working closely with other organizations, he aims to correct many of the issues inherent in abuse investigations. Shining a brighter light on this side of things would only have strengthened the movie’s impact. “Rewind” dependently relies on title cards, to give the viewer important wrap-up information. Sasha’s story has helped other survivors immensely, and ideally, these aspects would have been more intricately threaded into the documentary rather than but punctuated its ending.
The process of reinvestigating past trauma often causes more pain for assault victims, and Sasha Joseph Neulinger’s incredible bravery in revisiting his case alone is worth celebrating. He doesn’t shy away from asking his parents the hard questions he needs them to answer. His mother speaks shocking truths a parent would rarely admit to a fully-grown child. An emotional conversation with his father reveals a tragic side of paternal humanity. Men act like they aren’t allowed to love each other, not openly. The utter honesty behind these scenes could only be captured in a documentary. Sasha doesn’t blame his father; there is no disdain remaining, only raw empathy. Henry isn’t hiding behind his lenses, not anymore, he can finally express affection for his son from the other side of the camera. [A-]
Follow along with all our coverage from the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival here.
