Analysis Of Watching Without Apology, By Susan Hamovitch

I think it was very courageous of Susan Hamovitch to make a documentary of her family’s most painful, protective secret at that time. In the early 90’s, when people were judged, criticized, made fun of, and in some cases even punished for what Susan tried to reveal to the world, was very daring. It must have been not easy for Susan, nor for her family, to reveal their family’s secret to the world as the mother said to Susan when she told her her intention of making a documentary of their family secret “well, you’ve certainly dropped a bombshell.” It was a bombshell for the family because of what they kept secret of their whole life was about to be revealed to the world. The secret of the family was Alan, who never developed the ability to speak as his …show more content…
As I was watching it, it evoked a lot of unpleasant emotional feeling such as sadness, anger, sympathy, pain, and powerlessness. My eyes were full of tears throughout the documentary as Susan describing how Alan was living his life and how it influences her and her family. Watching the documentary evoked those feeling because a lot could have been done to improve Alan’s conditions, but because of the lack of knowledge great deal of wrong were done that could have been prevented. The guilt that Mitzi (the mother) carried her whole life that she was responsible for her son condition, and Alan condition would have been so much improved if he would have got better care and one-on-one attention from the beginning. Watching the film, I also felt extremely powerless as today we understand the problem and know how to address it, for the most part, but in some places of the world there are still people who are experiencing the same situation as Mitzi, Bill, and Susan. They go through the same situation today as Hamovitch family went through in the 90’s. They experience shame, blaming and also embarrassment if they have family member and loved one who have some type of