TV Review : ‘Tata’ Probes the Dark Side of Manhood

Sheldon Schiffer’s “Memories of Tata” is one of those films in which the making and the story being told coil tightly around each other, until neither can be separated. As Schiffer tries to uncover the secrets underlying his family’s hatred of his grandfather, Adam Morales, or “Tata,” he also comes up against film’s own limitations to record and make sense of memory, to heal the wounds of machismo abuse.

And just beneath the surface of every word and image of this film on PBS’ “P.O.V.” series is the terror of the dark side of manhood, and how good men may intervene against it.

Alas, Schiffer can’t do this with camera and sound equipment alone, as he sits with his grandfather, his grandmother Rosa, his aunt Martha and mother, Ariana, to talk about a painful family past. With only some photos, a few objects and the memories to build from, Schiffer soon finds himself trapped in a bitter irony: Adam, whose violence tore his family apart, is much more generous with his feelings and recollections than the primary victim of his abuse, Rosa. It’s another kind of domination by this now-deceased Nicaraguan barber, made permanent on film.

Just as permanent, though, are the stories told by Martha and Ariana, who explain how they stopped loving their father once he began beating them along with Rosa. Schiffer can’t reconcile this with the loving grandfather he enjoyed visiting at his barber shop, even as he recalls the back room of that shop having a bed and a wall full of nudie photos.

Nothing in “Tata” gets to the heart of macho culture. But Schiffer does record--with a remarkable intimacy--both the ritual of Adam’s cremation and burial-at-sea and Schiffer’s self-reflection that what once was a sign of male strength is now a “frailty.”

“Memories of Tata” airs at 10:30 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28.