The End of the Neubacher Project

Director: Marcus J. Carney
Austria/Netherlands 2006 74 mins
Language: English/German with English subtitles

Eight years in the making, The End of the Neubacher Project traces filmmaker
Marcus Carney’s troubling journey into his family’s Nazi past. The Neubachers
were key players in Austrian National Socialism (Carney’s grandfather was
prominent enough within the Nazi hierarchy to enjoy hunting trips with Hermann
Goering). Carney tackles his dying grandmother’s refusal to face up to personal
involvement in the anti-Semitism of 1930s Vienna, but his mother becomes the
project’s real focus. Torn between love for her parents and outward rejection of
fascism, her sharp decline after being diagnosed with cancer during filming is
documented with unflinching candour. “If you ever marry an American or a Jew,
I’ll shoot you” her father had warned after World War II; marry an American she
did, but her estranged husband has his own opinions on her honesty over the
Neubacher legacy. Shot on 35mm film with extensive use of family footage and
archive material, this extraordinary work - Carney’s “epic home movie” -
confronts painful taboos with immense courage.

Event / Themes: Family Matters Past in the Present Tense