Reconstructing the Loss: Bereaved Parents in Personal Commemorative Films

The aim of this study was to find answers to the question of how Israeli parents who have lost their child in battle or in a terror attack reconstruct their life story, as revealed in personal commemorative films. Twenty personal documentary commemorative films were systematically and thematically analyzed. Through exposing the themes of last shared experience, death event, and notification of death, the research sheds light on the self-healing process that enables parents to build a bridge in their narrative. The commemorative films provide a framework for reconstruction work adding to the new body of research in the field of video and cinema therapy.