Process

Subject, Form & Structure

Subject — Grandma’s life during the war.

Context — Eastern Europe Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, Germany North America Canada, Toronto

Character — My grandmother (Genovite Birute Miksys Kasperavicius).

Conflict — Growing up in World War II.

Raise The Stakes — Narrative Method.

Stands to lose her life.
Stands to gain Freedom.
She needs to obtain refuge and safety.
The Communists and Nazi’s stand in her way.
Risking being caught, killed, or sent to Siberia.

Solution — The war ends and she is given opportunity for a better life.

Denoument — She moves to a refugee camp in Germany where she begins to rebuild. She comes to Canada and begins anew.

Form — The easiest way to present this information is through an Observational documentary , as it is comprised of stories that are personal to the subject and the creator (myself).

Structure — Exposition, Climax, Denoument

Exposition: Life in Lithuania before the war.
Climax: Running from the war until it ends.
Denoument: Becoming a refugee and immigrating to Canada.

Tone/Mood — The tone of this film should be melancholy and retrospective. The mood of this film should change throughout, but be consistently tender.

Research

Interview — The informtaion that I gathered for this documentary was from personal stories told to me by the character (my grandmother) with help from her daughter (my mother) Aldona Kasperavicius Morrison. She was not comfortable being recorded during the interview, but she did give me permission to use the information gathered to write and tell her story.

Visuals

Access and Permission — All visual elements used in this documentary are from our family archives. Permission to use these assets was provided to me, Andreja Morrison, for explicit use in this project by Genovite Birute Miksys Kasperavicius. The videos used in this documentary are family archives shot on 35mm film between 1951-1960 and developed in 2020 by Kyle Robertson.