TV Talk: Shaler grad directs ‘A Tree of Life’ documentary for HBO
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.
Pittsburgh native and New York-based director Trish Adlesic has made films in Western Pennsylvania before — she was a producer on HBO’s 2010 fracking documentary “Gasland” and 2013’s “Gasland Part II” — but she didn’t anticipate making another hometown film.
Then she brought her elderly father home from the Catskills and two days after celebrating his birthday in Pittsburgh, the horrific shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill occurred.
“I was just heartbroken and in such a state of shock,” said Adlesic, a Shaler graduate.
Devastated by the politically fueled hate speech that drove the synagogue shooter, Adlesic felt compelled to “do something.”
Coming off HBO’s “I Am Evidence,” a 2017 documentary about how American police departments handle sexual assault cases where Adlesic had been through trauma-informed training on how to conduct interviews without re-traumatizing victims, the filmmaker wanted to tell the story of the shooting and its victims through the words of Tree of Life survivors.
“A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting” premieres on HBO and HBO Max at 9 p.m. Wednesday. (The 80-minute film will continue to stream on HBO Max for the next 10 years.)
“The attack happened on the 27th, and I started filming on the 28th, 29th, 30th, those few days after,” Adlesic recalled. “And I decided to stay and live in Pittsburgh for almost three years and make the film because I felt so strongly that it needed to be made with the utmost care.”
Those featured in “A Tree of Life” include Carol Black, Dr. Joseph Charny, Anthony Fienberg, Audrey Glickman, Daniel Leger, Hannibal Lokumbe, Wasi Mohamed, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, Brad Orsini, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman, Michele Rosenthal, Diane Rosenthal, Augie Siriano, Ellen Surloff, Andrea Wedner, Stephen Weiss and Barry Werber.
“I had in my heart the vision of their voices being woven together and what we could learn from them,” Adlesic said. “I knew that it was going to be a very delicate approach and it would take time because you can’t rush. This is the type of work where you have to cultivate comfort, and I largely interviewed everyone in their homes, deliberately, because I knew that was where they would be most comfortable.”
The resulting film is a deeply moving effort that tells the stories of survivors and victims while placing the tragedy in the larger socio-political context of an emboldened American white supremacists movement.
Adlesic workshopped her questions with Glickman, wanting to get a sense for how the questions would make respondents feel.
“We were not going for necessarily the awful, gory details, but their experiences and also taking the time they needed to be comfortable,” Adlesic said. “It wasn’t (about filming) when it was convenient for us, it was when it was best for them. That was always at the forefront.”
An early version of the film had its first public preview at the DOC NYC film festival in fall 2021. After that, HBO came aboard as the distribution platform and funded the creation of improved graphics, music track, main titles, etc.
“We extended the safety training scene because we really wanted people to understand the urgency that’s required,” Adlesic said of a scene showing an expert demonstrate what to do in the event of an attack on a house of worship. “There are (more than) 4,000 synagogues in the U.S., but we also want to do trainings in tandem with black churches and mosques, with all communities at risk. That’s one of our tangible priorities for the project.”
Adlesic said they’re also building out an education campaign, Love Your Neighbor, inspired by the tenets of Pittsburgh’s Fred Rogers. A screening toolkit guide will post to the show’s HBO page on Wednesday.
“We made (the film) because of the power of art,” said Adlesic, who co-wrote the film with Eric Schuman, a former Tree of Life congregant who also now resides in New York. “We believe we can reach people and hope we can create opportunities for understanding.”
“A Tree of Life” carries three Pittsburgh native bold-face names as executive producers: Michael Keaton, Billy Porter and Mark Cuban. Adlesic said she looked to notable Pittsburgh natives for support, beginning with Keaton.
“I asked him to help me do my best creative work, to help me find a great home for the film and to stand with the families and survivors in fighting anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination and hate,” Adlesic said. “And he’s done that, and he’s played that role and he’s been very supportive.”
The filmmaker said she was struggling at raising funds at one point and wrote an email to Cuban.
“He was so phenomenally wonderful,” she said. “Within eight minutes, he wrote back and he said, ‘I don’t produce movies anymore, but I’ll give you a grant.’ And his grant helped pay for the entire editing, which was really needed because in documentary filmmaking, it’s all about the editing, and we really needed time to do that.”
Porter pledged to support the film with outreach, “helping us get the messaging out there and reach people and helping us come together and figure out how we can intervene against this madness,” Adlesic said. “And he was so lovely.”
In an emailed response to questions, Porter explained why he wanted to be involved with “A Tree of Life.”
“I’m a true believer that art can heal the worst traumas,” Porter said. “I know this for a fact firsthand. The extraordinary ‘Tree Of Life’ documentary is just that. It stands boldly at the intersections of hate and love, trauma and healing, death and life, and challenges us to continue to choose life anyway. I’m humbled to be a part of this step toward the healing of our civilization.”
Most recently, Adlesic reached out to Idina Menzel to see if she’d contribute a song that honors the dead and plays tribute to the survivors. Menzel and Kate Diaz wrote “A Tree of Life,” which Menzel performs. The song plays over the film’s end credits and will likely be submitted for future awards consideration.
“It’s the greatest honor of my life to bear witness to what they went through,” Adlesic said. “I just feel such enormous love for all of them.”
You can reach TV writer Rob Owen at rowen@triblive.com or 412-380-8559. Follow @RobOwenTV on Threads, X, Bluesky and Facebook. Ask TV questions by email or phone. Please include your first name and location.
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