Reconstructing the Loss: Bereaved Parents in Personal Commemorative Films

Abstract

The aim of this study was to find answers to the question of how Israeli parents who have lost their child in battle or in a terror attack reconstruct their life story, as revealed in personal commemorative films. Twenty personal documentary commemorative films were systematically and thematically analyzed. Through exposing the themes of last shared experience, death event, and notification of death, the research sheds light on the self-healing process that enables parents to build a bridge in their narrative. The commemorative films provide a framework for reconstruction work adding to the new body of research in the field of video and cinema therapy.

KEYWORDS:

• bereaved parents
• personal commemorative films
• loss
• Israel
• narrative

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bilha Bachrach

Bilha Bachrach is a lecturer at Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research interests include bereavement, loss, and commemorative films.

Ruth Landau

Ruth Landau is an associate professor emerita at Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research interests include ethics and end of life and beginning of life issues.