- Welcome to Independent Lens.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
The healing path for victims
lucky enough to survive sexual abuse can vary.
For filmmaker Sasha Joseph Neulinger,
his healing came in the form of old VHS tapes and home movies
but not without reliving horrifying memories.
Tonight, we get a first-hand look
at what life was like for Sasha as a troubled young boy
in the film Rewind.
Neulinger directs and appears as his own subject
in a film where the term documentarian
has never been more appropriate
as his life was prolifically documented
by his father via Handycam.
Those resources allowed Neulinger
to delve painfully and bravely into his childhood.
Throughout the film, we gain access to a family where
sexual abuse was not only rampant, but multi-generational,
as the viewer gets glimpses of these perpetrators
lurking in the background at family gatherings
and interacting with children.
Throughout this eerie visual journey,
Sasha also explores the abuse his father suffered.
In one haunting scene, Sasha's father
reveals the exact spot where he was abused
and discusses mistakenly, how
the only person he thought he needed to protect his son from
was himself.
He did this successfully
while having no idea at the time
that Sasha and his two siblings
were being abused by the same uncles that abused him.
At one point in the film, a troubled young Sasha
looks directly into camera and says, "Don't give up on me."
Luckily for documentary fans and sex abuse victims alike,
Sasha never gave up on himself.
Rewind starts now, on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.