“Questions for My Father” is a document of the inquiries, doubts and reservations of a generation of men who came of age in the late 20th century. The work builds upon an eponymous series of drawings Karl Haendel began in 2007.

Arranged like a series of portraits on a black, studio backdrop, the subjects of the film face the camera and, with a direct, even delivery that belies the emotional topics, ask things they always wanted to know about their fathers but never voiced. Some of the men have already lost their fathers; others rarely, if ever, knew them; and for many, their questions were just too hard to ask. Almost all are a part of Haendel and Ringbom’s social and professional milieu, of similar age and educational background and presently working in creative fields in New York and Los Angeles. The shared circumstances contribute a sense of community to the group, much as those of their fathers, who came of age in the 1960s, yield common questions about an era of Nixon, Vietnam, protest and radicalism. The men – many young fathers themselves – also build broader themes, asking about paternal regrets, depression and sexual fantasies.