Phyllis and Harold

Video artist Cindy Kleine’s familial dissection probes her parents’ mismatched World War II--era marriage and the nonconformist notions that defined her mother to a tee; Phyllis seemed largely uninterested in raising kids and felt tormented by a forbidden love. Kleine forgoes good-old-days nostalgia in an effort to examine a generation that braved the new America sans a rule book. But it’s the central mystery of Cindy’s own life—did Phyllis ever love Harold?—that turns this sociological examination into something profoundly personal.—S. James Snyder

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