The documentary film OPEN SECRET (2011) by director Steve Lickteig screened at the 14th TDF. The film is about Steve Lickteig’s search for his real parents, a search which endured for 20 years. Steve was adopted by Don and Mary Jane Lickteig and was raised on their farm in rural Kansas. When Steve was 18 he discovered a shocking secret that everyone in the town knew except himself, that he was the son of his oldest sister, Joanie. A sibling to eight children of Don and Mary, he was the last person in his family and his town to ever find out the truth. In the film Steve returns to the town to interview his family and legitimate mother to try to discover why they kept this secret from him for so many years.

In a Q and A to Steve, he was asked how he could manage to stay an objective filmmaker while making such a personal story.

Steve replied:  

"I treated it like a journalist and as if I didn't know the people I was interviewing so I just tried to be objective even though it was personal and not a battle or done in an aggressive way, so it was done respectfully. With my sister and my mother and I it's still a little bit if a dance. We stay in touch but it's still very delicate. I think in today's society secrets like this wouldn't be kept but I was born in late 60s and 70s so even though everyone knew about this secret they kept it from me. When I came back to make a film of it everyone thought I was coming back to be angry but I was coming back to embrace them."

Witten by Vanessa McMahon, March 17, 2012

director Steve Lickteig