Hot Docs Review

Open Secret

World Showcase

70 minutes | USA | Language: English | World Premiere | Rating: PG

Reviewed By Adam A. Donaldson

Open Secret plays like something out of Dickens, or Melrose Place. A gapping family wound is put on display in this documentary, and its then poked and prodded with all the subtlety of a medical school lecture. And all the while I was wondering how filmmaker Steve Lickteig was able to wade through the murky waters of his own past, let alone get the whole thing caught on film, edited, and put on display for audiences worldwide to see.

Lickteig was told as a child that he was adopted. This part is true. His adopted family was large. He had many older brothers and sisters, loving parents, a good home, and a comfortable life in America’s heartland. On the eve of his high school graduation though, Lickteig was told the truth: his adoptive parents were really his grandparents, and his eldest sister Joanie was, in fact, his birth mother. Adding insult to injury, it seemed that this fact was the worst kept secret in town. Only young Steve was in the dark as to his true heritage, and now, with video camera in hand, he tries to get to the bottom as to the reasons why everyone in his life lied straight to his face for so long.

Shot in a simple, straightforward manner with an HD camera and his own perseverance, Lickteig attacks his own past like a 60 Minutes reporter weeding out corruption at the highest levels of corporate America. The film is terribly uncomfortable to watch in places, not to mention brutally honest in a way that would be difficult to achieve for most families when there are no cameras around. From Steve Lickteig’s perspective there are answer he needs, from his family’s perspective there’s a need for a full accounting, and finally letting Steve in on the full secret, especially for the parents who might not be around too much longer, or properly have their faculties, in order to explain themselves.

Open Secret is a fascinating look at family dynamics and the difficulties in coming back to a place of openness after years of obsessive secret keeping. The drama is palpable, and Lickteig’s personal, simple, and in your face approach to dissecting his own life is extreme effective. It’s squeamish, it’s fascinating, and it’s emotional. The Lickteig family should be in a psychology textbook somewhere, but failing that, take this stunning, and emotionally complex documentary, and revel in the somewhat muted in comparison normality of your own life.

Tue, May 3 9:30 PM Cumberland 3

Thu, May 5 11:00 AM Isabel Bader Theatre

Written by :

Adam