Product Details

• Actors: Carol Block, Doug Block, Mike Block
• Directors: Doug Block
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: March 12, 2012
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000QFAFOU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #155,903 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Documentary filmmaker Doug Block always thought his parents' 54-year marriage was a good one. But when his mother dies unexpectedly and his father swiftly marries a former secretary, he discovers a family history far more complex and troubled than he ever imagined. 51 BIRCH STREET is a riveting personal documentary that explores a universal human question - how much about your parents do you really want to know?

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Family Affair May 20, 2007

By "Rocky Raccoon" VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

A documentary that seems more like a reinactment, '51 Birch Street' presents an excellent family affair. Being able to draw from a large stash of photos, a few home movies and videos, as well as his deceased mother's daily diary, filmmaker Doug Block discovers a lot about his family--mostly his parents--that he hardly knew possible. Ambivalence creeps into play, for his discoveries are bittersweet. Sometimes he finds out things he'd rather not know. Generosity is also present, however, for the film wouldn't be interesting if we didn't care about the participants. Some of the discoveries have to do with social changes occurring between the fifties and sixties. Block narrates the family story with both emotion and detachment, but mainly approaches the film like he were a reporter. (We find out early in the film that after his mother dies, his father is quickly on the mend, marrying his long-time secretary.) With editing that uses good judgment and family discussions that yield interest, '51 Birch Street' is a real find.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I CAN'T BELIEVE A MAN MADE THIS MOVIE!! July 10, 2007

By Sara Booth

Format:DVD

Don't let my subject title fool you, 51 BIRCH STREET, is not the Ani DiFranco or Sarah McLachlan of personal documentaries- meaning this is a film that men and women of all ages will enjoy (assuming that they like emotionally stirring portraits of American families!) Its just that I always find myself pleasantly surprised when I see a unflinching, emotionally accurate, and unwaveringly honest portrayal of a woman by a man. 51 BIRCH STREET is all that and more. The filmmaker Doug Block is clearly admiring of his mother, Mina, yet unafraid to show her character warts and all, in the ultimate testimony to the belief that love is being able to see someone's full character, but still really love them just as they are. Three months after her sudden death his father reconnected with a secretary from 40 years ago, Kitty (what names, Mina and Kitty!), within the year they've married and are moving to Florida! This was obviously was a bit of a shock to him and his sisters, and after decades of his mothers diaries were discovered during the move, Doug was inspired to make the film. Ultimately it is a loving portrait of the challenges of family. It's gripping and moving, a must see!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly engrossing for a documentary about emotions and interior lives October 20, 2008

By Joseph P. Menta, Jr. VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Moving, ultimately enthralling documentary about an average suburban New York husband and wife, and their family. And, no, it isn't a secret murder or molestation or other sensational element often seen in other family documentaries that makes this one engrossing. It's simply the sad revelation that there were secret emotional lives, laced with frustration and sadness, under the stiff-upper-lip exteriors of the married couple who are the film's subjects. Documentarian Doug Block's approach to his parents is clever: he first makes it seem that it was his father who had a secret life- real and interior- while his mother happily toiled away with the kids. But it's later revealed that this description better fit Doug's mother (though I'm not completely convinced Doug's father didn't have his own very-real adventures, too, to counter his frustrations). Still, whatever one ends up believing about what went on and where the fault originated in the marriage, the documentary itself is affectionate and non-judgemental, just wanting to understand its subjects, and feel a little sad for them for all their years of underlying unhappiness.

But there's also joy and hope in the film, in the form of Doug's 83 year-old father finding ultimate contentment with an old acquaintance (possibly old flame), to the amazement of Doug and his sisters. It's this new relationship, however, that gets the documentary rolling in the first place, as the filmmaker and his siblings ask, "How can Dad be married for over fifty years but then fall in love with a woman from his past only three months after his wife dies?"

Good extras shed further light on this very interesting story and on Doug Block's quirky and often entertaining extended family members. Those family members, by the way, perform the welcome function of occasionally lightening the mood in an otherwise fairly dark film.