INTERVIEW: For director Justin Schein, ‘Death & Taxes’ is quite personal
Filmmaker Justin Schein has built a career out of making documentaries about subjects external to him and his family’s life, but for his latest work, he decided to turn the cameras inward-facing. Death & Taxes, which is now playing at New York City’s IFC Center, centers on the issue of the controversial estate tax — critics like to call it the “death tax” — and how Schein disagreed about the topic with his own father, Harvey Schein, who rose from humble beginnings in the Great Depression to eventually run the American arm of Sony, according to press notes.
The father, as depicted in the film, was determined not to have the “taxman” take his wealth, while the son saw the tax system in the United States as inherently unfair.
“The film itself came about around 2017 when there was the new president, and there was a real possibility that the estate tax was going to be abolished,” Schein said about the origins of the project. “And I wanted to explore that. I had been fighting with my dad about that issue for decades, and my opinion about it had shifted as I became a dad. So I was interested in getting a better sense of what was behind it, so I went out and started talking to people about it. Nobody wanted to talk about their own estates, you know, people who had wealth, and I know a good film, for me, needs character-driven stories. So I started to think about whether I could do a personal story.”
That’s when Schein realized he had footage of his mother and father from 20 years prior because he had started making a documentary about their relationship. The filmed scenes were centered on Schein’s father moving to Florida, but it became the foundation for Death & Taxes.
Examining such a personal subject as one’s disagreement with a family member has been difficult for the filmmaker. “I’m experiencing that discomfort as we speak as we get closer and closer to the release,” the director said. “Yeah, it’s uncomfortable. I think talking about money is one of the last taboos in America, but I have spent 35 years making documentaries and a lot of them about other people in discomfort and in vulnerable positions. I think there’s an inherent ethical problem with that, and so when I realized that I had the ability to tell this story from this unusual, privileged perspective, I felt like it was worth the discomfort. It’s uncomfortable, yes, but I’m still in a position of power where I get to tell the story.”
Schein freely admitted that at times he lost perspective when telling the story, given that the focus was on his family, but he relied on the expertise of his collaborators to set him on the right path. Robert Edwards, for example, co-directs the film.
“It’s about people who love each other disagreeing,” he said. “I don’t try to pretend that I have all the answers. I just think these are important questions.”
Although Death & Taxes is highly personal, there’s a universal quality to the film as well. For starters, the issue of the estate tax and what happens to inheritances is one that impacts many Americans, either directly or indirectly, and secondly, relationships with one’s parents is a challenge for every viewer.
“I think there are many different layers going on here,” Schein said. “One of them is this universal relationship and struggle between a parent and a child, and the evolution of that, starting with me being an adoring child who looked up to this powerful man who was my dad, to being an obnoxious teenager pushing back, to being a parent myself and maybe having a new perspective on his decisions. But also on a broader sense, I feel like when I started looking at my dad’s life, I realized that it really did parallel this American century economically.”
Schein’s father was born in 1927 at the height of the Great Depression, but then he rode the post-World War II boom that saw many families setting down roots and prospering. His father went to college on the G.I. Bill, like many other Americans, and the benefit of that experience set him up for a lucrative life.
“He became extremely successful and then kind of pivoted to supporting [President Ronald] Reagan,” Schein said. “And looking back at my dad, I feel like he lived this myth of the American dream, where he worked hard and was very successful and has passed that on to me and my children. And I’m hopefully going to pass that on, but that is becoming harder and harder to achieve for most Americans with the cost of healthcare, education and housing. And I think taxes are part of the problem, the fact that there are so many loopholes that allow this 1 percent that has more wealth than the bottom 50 percent of Americans, to pass it on without paying any taxes. I think that needs to change.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Death & Taxes, directed by Justin Schein and Robert Edwards, is now playing in movie theaters, including at New York City’s IFC Center. Click here for more information and tickets.
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