Open Secret - A Documentary By Steve Lickteig

Working on Open Secret

steve — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:32:04 +0000

By Charlotte Stoudt, producer

When Steve first told me about his extraordinary family history, I was hooked. It was an amazing story in and of itself, but there was another reason: I am also adopted. My adoption occurred under very different circumstances, but Steve and I bonded over our lingering feelings of incompleteness that comes with not being raised by our biological parents. Soon after we met, I began looking for my birth parents while Steve hunted down records of his birth father’s odyssey through the Nazi concentration camp system.

All along the way, Steve and I swapped stories of bureaucracy, impatience and secret hopes. I wanted, just as Steve wishes at one point in the movie, to have a coherent story of my origins. For all relevant parties to report the same incident. To agree on the details. Of course, the reality was quite different—just like it is in OPEN SECRET. I finally met both of my birth parents. But they hadn’t seen each other in forty years. Their stories were completely contradictory. At first I was disappointed. Then I realized their differing points of view were a kind of gift. I felt like Dorothy, waking up after a tornado trip to Oz and finally getting it.

Working on OPEN SECRET has been like hitting the yellow brick road again, but this time on someone else’s journey. Steve’s dogged faith, twisted Midwestern humor and sheer menschiness make the trip unforgettable.

People are excited about OPEN SECRET in a way that really gets my attention. I think it’s because they feel implicated in it. On one level or another, Steve’s documentary seems to be telling all of our stories. Adoption is only one way in. When you see the film, I hope you’ll recognize a part of your own story. To me that would be the real measure of OPEN SECRET’s success.

A deep thanks to everyone who has supported the film so far. We absolutely could not tell this story without your generosity and enthusiasm.

Benny Weinstein

steve — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:52:06 +0000

Benny Weinstein in Toronto, 2006

I received word a couple of days ago that my biological father’s cousin, Benny Weinstein, passed away at the age of 96. Benny had lived in the same town as Henry in Poland and they were together in two concentration camps during the war.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Benny back in 2006 at his daughter’s home in Toronto. He was incredibly warm and patient, sitting through two hours of questions, some very difficult to answer about his Holocaust experiences. While his interview won’t end up in Open Secret, his stories were invaluable in helping me to better understand who my father was and what he went through as a young man. Thank you, Benny (my first cousin once removed!) for sharing a little bit of your life with me.

Heinrich Egiel

steve — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:45:29 +0000

For a while now we’ve (the film team) been trying to decide how much of my biological father’s story to include in OPEN SECRET. Obviously, my father’s history–a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust–is very important to me, but we’re not sure yet how much of his history serves the larger story of my family in Kansas. Still, for the past several years, I have continued to research the years that are the least known about my father–1940 to 1945, when he was imprisoned in forced labor and concentration camps. An incredible resource as been the International Tracing Service collection held by the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington. About two years ago, I submitted a basic search request and the researchers there went to work–at no charge to me–and uncovered a trove of documents pertaining to my father. Nearly all of them were from just after the war (when he entered a displaced persons camp in Germany) but one of the documents gave me information that nobody–not even my father’s closest family members–knew: the actual camps where he was held. You can see that information in the annotated image.

One of the best things about making this film is all the discoveries I’ve made along the way. Even if they don’t end up in the final movie, what I’ve learned about my catholic family from Kansas and my jewish family from Poland definitely informs the final product and has been an incredibly rewarding and rich experience.

Production Shot

steve — Sat, 29 May 2010 21:53:19 +0000

Cinematographer Laura Kissel shooting Mary Jane and Don Lickteig, May 2008

The Word: Out

steve — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:52:37 +0000

Welcome to the second part of making an independent documentary film: getting the word out. This blog is just one of several word-spreading tools. You can go to the Open Secret Facebook page and “like” it; you can follow the film on Twitter and for bigger news and less day to day stuff (meaning I won’t overload your inbox) you can sign up at the bottom of this page.

Making Open Secret has led to many wonderful discoveries, but I think one of the best things to come from it is my friendship with Mark Ferdman. Mark is the grandson of my biological father, Henry, which makes Mark my half-nephew. I met Mark after making contact with Henry’s daughter (my half-sister). Not only is Mark a great guy, he also happens to be the founder of Freedom + Partners, an interactive design company in New York that does thoughtful, high-end creative work with major companies. So, I was thrilled when Mark offered to take on the design of this site as well as the film’s poster and logo. Not only am I getting top of the line creative design, I’m also keeping it in the family!