The death of my seven-year-old brother when I was nine remains a painful and haunting memory. My parents did not know how to cope with the loss of their child and the entire family experienced indescribable pain. Phantom Limb uses this personal story as a point of departure. Whether it is a loss through death or divorce, the stages of grieving are the same. Individuals often go through denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, ultimately, some kind of acceptance, in order to heal. The film is loosely structured according to these stages. Interspersed throughout this poetic documentary are interviews with a cemetery owner, a phantom limb patient and an author of a book about evidence for life after death. Phantom Limb reminds viewers that while grief is painful and isolating, it is a reminder to each of us that life is impermanent.
Phantom Limb Films
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Jay Rosenblatt
Jay Rosenblatt is an internationally recognized artist and a two-time Academy Award® nominated filmmaker who has completed over thirty-five films. His work explores our emotional and psychological cores. They are personal in their content yet universal in their appeal.
Jay’s films have received over 100 awards and have screened throughout the world. A selection of his films had theatrical runs at the Film Forum in New York and at theaters nationwide. He also had a feature length program of work screen for a week at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Nine of his films have been at the Sundance Film Festival, nine of his films have screened at IDFA and several of his films have shown on HBO, PBS and the Sundance Channel. Articles about his work have appeared in the Sunday NY Times Arts & Leisure section, the LA Times, the NY Times and Filmmaker.
Jay is a recipient of a Guggenheim, USA Artists and a Rockefeller Fellowship. He has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2002 and served on the Executive Committee of the Documentary Branch for twelve years.
Jay is originally from New York and has lived in San Francisco for many years. He was a film and video production instructor from 1989 – 2010 at various film schools in the Bay Area, including Stanford University, S.F. State University, and the San Francisco Art Institute. He was the Program Director of the Jewish Film Institute (presenters of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival) for 15 years. He has a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology and, in a former life, worked as a therapist.