Author Nitsan Tal brings a personal tale of a family coming to recognize a father's bipolar disorder and what they had to do to manage as the illness threatened to tear them apart. We conversed with her about digging into her family’s painful and illuminating history through memoir instead of her usual medium of documentary film. She describes the courageous creative act of making art outside one’s comfort zone. We welcome Nitsan to The Sparke on Saturday, June 20.
Donna:
Your memoir, detailing your family's experience with your father's bipolar disorder, sounds wrenching. Now, the publishing journey has become part of that bigger journey. How has writing the book changed your understanding?
Nitsan:
Writing the book, especially the research involved, taught me so much; it’s hard for me to even think back to what I knew before. On the theoretical-general level, I read a lot about bipolar disorder: personal accounts, like An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison, or Darkness Visible by William Styron, both excellent books that opened my eyes to what depression feels like; I also read statistics about people living with bipolar disorder in the corrections system, within the homeless population, and so on. But more than that, on a personal level, researching the book gave me a reason and an opportunity to talk in depth with my father's old friends and family members, and to hear about their experiences and their reasons for actions or inaction. Of those, the most significant for me was talking to my mom. For the first time, I had an opportunity to ask her about the early years of my father’s diagnosis and the decisions she made back then. It gave me a whole new perspective on events that shaped my life.
Donna:
The page is not your usual canvas. Your website illustrates your professional life: photography from around the world and documentary films, with a focus on "the human condition." Why turn your attention to this memoir now?
Nitsan:
The project actually started out as a documentary film. I began producing and directing films in 2013, and my father’s story was a natural subject to turn my camera to. But after filming many interviews, I realized I had barely any other visual material and wasn’t sure how to address it. Then, in month two of the COVID pandemic, I received an email about a memoir-writing class and decided to give it a try. I actually wanted to subtitle the book “How I failed to make a documentary about my father,” but my publishing team talked me out of it.
Donna:
That's why we need a team! Writing a book is a solo effort, but publishing one shouldn't be. So, what are you working on now?
Nitsan:
Although the book is published, I just finished editing an audio version, which should be available for purchase soon. I also translated the book into Hebrew and am looking to publish it in other languages. On the creative side, I’m taking writing classes and attempting to write a speculative fiction novel.