Invisible Years

Synopsis

Invisible Years is a short, animated film that follows the book of the same title. After spending the majority of her life not knowing the details of her family history during the Holocaust, Daphne Geismar was led by her mother to an antique desk drawer in her childhood home. She found that it was packed with letters, diary entries, and relics from her extended Jewish family members’ experiences in the Nazi occupied Netherlands. Using hand-crafted animation, archival films, photographs, papers, and textures taken directly from the drawer, Invisible Years weaves together a single tapestry out of the loose threads of untold family
stories.

About the Director

Kira Dane (co-director) is a Japanese American filmmaker based between the US and Japan. Having grown up between conflicting cultures in New York City and rural Japan, she is interested in using her work to explore nuance and gray area in moments of honest vulnerability. She specializes in merging hand-crafted animation with documentary film, and is best known for “Mizuko,” an autobiographical documentary about Japanese Buddhist rituals for grieving abortions. The film was supported by If/Then Shorts (Tribeca Film Institute, Field of Vision) and received a nomination for the IDA Awards, Special Jury Awards at SXSW and IDFA, and Best Documentary Short at Atlanta Film Festival. Kira was chosen as a fellow of the Sundance Ignite Program in 2019 and Berlinale Talents in 2023. She is a member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, A-Doc, and Video Consortium.

Katelyn Rebelo (co-director) is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn. Her work combines documentary and experimental forms, often using tactile animation techniques and rhythms in nature to explore feelings left unsaid. Her first film “Mizuko” was supported by Tribeca Film
Institute’s If/Then Short Documentary Program, and is now streaming on The Criterion Channel. The film was nominated for Best Documentary Short at the 2020 IDA Documentary Awards, won Best Documentary Short at Atlanta Film Festival, and received special jury awards at SXSW and IDFA. She was a Jacob Burns Creative Culture Filmmaking Fellow from 2021 – 2022. Her most recent film “I Don’t Know If You Remember This” premiered at the 2022 New Orleans Film Festival.