How Long Is “Forgetting Dad”?

In 1990, Richard Minnich was an ordinary husband and father who was involved in a minor auto accident. A week later, Minnich suddenly and unexpectedly developed a severe case of amnesia; he was stripped of all memories of his life, and could no longer recognize his wife, children or friends. Despite a long series of tests, neurologists could not determine the cause of Minnich's amnesia or find an effective way to treat it. After two years, Minnich's marriage broke up under the strain, and he married another woman with two children, starting a new family. In time, Minnich cut off communication with several members of his family, and pointedly told his son Rick Minnich that he was a new Richard now, not the father he used to know. Sixteen years after the accident, Rick Minnich, a filmmaker, decided to make a documentary about his father's amnesia, and in Forgetting Dad he studies the effect Richard's loss of memory had on his family, and asks the unspoken question, did Richard Minnich really have amnesia, or has he simply found a way to leave behind a life he no longer cared to lead? Forgetting Dad received its North American premiere at the 2009 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.