Death and Taxes
45th Annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
Landmark Piedmont Theatre
4186 Piedmont Ave.
Oakland
July 22, 2025
“He would like this film, particularly if it does well.”
Justin Schein, filmmaker and director of “Death and Taxes,” focused his lens on his late father, Harvey, for a number of years prior to his death. Loving but unflinching, the portrait of the man is funny and reflective and not infrequently painful to watch, with Harvey’s torturous tirades on taxes tainting the entire family for over a decade. This obsession broke his marriage, alienated his children, and rendered him a generally insufferable presence—but also caused Justin to consider their financial circumstances in a different light, and to explore our country’s tumultuous history of taxation.
The film was screened as a Tuesday matinee at the Landmark Piedmont Theatre as part of the 45th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. I was pleasantly surprised to find the theater seats close to filled — the same has been true of the opening night celebration and screening of “Coexistence My Ass” and Wednesday’s “Oh, Hi” at the Piedmont as well. (<ore to come on that soon.) Schein’s deeply personal take, “of a father and son at odds over what kind of inheritance we want to leave our kids and our country,” seemed a surprising crowd pleaser to me, but attendees were tuned in, hissing at mention of the current president, wealth inequality, and the billionaire class at large.
The film’s title left little to the imagination in terms of content, but wove together beautifully a combination of classic film clips, historical footage, vintage cartoons, recent newscasts, home videos from Schein’s childhood, and interviews with his father in the 1990s and 2000s. These later conversations, with both parents, as and after Harvey’s obsessive tendencies turned to taxes and personal wealth, are difficult to watch, with Harvey’s rigidity only just slightly tempered by his clear love and desire to provide for his family.
Schein began the project in the mid-'90s, documenting the fracturing of his parents’ 40 year marriage: Harvey was set on his Floridian Dream, his taxless oasis of boredom and sunshine that required residency for more than half the year, and his mother wanted to feel alive, to dance, to among the living breathing city in New York. They split, and Justin put down his camera to help heal the family’s wounds. A decade later, as his father’s life began to slop away, the estate tax conversations more frequent and intense, he picked it back up. Harvey passed, and country’s economy fell into the toilet. But his planning had paid off—the family did not pay a dime in estate tax.
And then, as Trump (hiss, boo) rose to power to 2017 and national conversation pushed the agenda of the ultra-wealthy once again, Schein returned to the unfinished film and began to weave in current events, thought leaders and economic experts, and to paint a full but unflinching picture of his troubled, but loving, father.
He was a "bundle of contradictions, as we all are,” a brilliant but ruthless businessman, and deeply reflective about his own shortcomings, personality, and life. Not a kind character, but likely one you’d met, and Justin’s desire to show this fullness is clear. He hopes the film will be a chance to use the personal to reflect the much larger reality we’re all living through, and that it can help to reignite conversation and to think about taxes a bit differently. And, with the financial backing of his super wealthy father, he is able to do just that.
SFJFF 45 runs through August 3rd, 2025. Schedule and ticketing here.
