Rosenberg Documentary Debuts at Sundance

[kskiska]

PARK CITY, Utah - Few filmmakers examining their family history in a documentary would find themselves in the thick of the Academy Awards (news - web sites) race.

When your grandparents are Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, though, the subject resonates far outside the immediate family.

Ivy Meeropol's "Heir to an Execution" chronicles her effort to come to terms with the lives and deaths of her father's parents, executed as traitors in 1953 after being accused of relaying the secret of the atomic bomb to the Soviets.

"I grew up with this. It was always there and I knew about it because it was just part of our lives. But I didn't really feel the need to delve into it before," Meeropol, 35, said in an interview at the Sundance Film Festival (news - web sites), where "Heir to an Execution" is among 16 films competing for the top documentary honor. The film also is one of 12 up for Oscar consideration in next Tuesday's nominations.

"Then I started to be curious about people who knew my grandparents, and family members, too, that I had never talked to. On the personal side, I wanted to know more about what happened, and I wanted to bring people along on that journey."

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Two really good recent books on this case are "An Execution in the Family," and "The Brother."

[hlthe2b]

1. Fascinating...

While this occurred before my time, I can recall my Mother's intense discomfort over the whole affair when the subject came up in my own school years. I'm not sure if it was purely the fact that a woman and a mother had been electrocuted or whether she truly believed them innocent.... I guess a lot of Americans continue to struggle with the ambiguity.

[kskiska]

2. There was a lot of discomfort over the case

I was a kid then, but I remember pictures of protestors outside Sing Sing and all over the world. Whatever the extent of Julius' espionage (which appears to have been of trivial value), Ethel's execution was a result of pressure from the government, using her as a wedge to get her husband to confess, though they knew she wasn't deeply involved. They miscalculated. She didn't confess, and the government went ahead with her execution.