CIFF 2025: “Helen and the Bear” Paints Beautiful Portait of Grief & Freedom
Throughout history, we’ve seen countless iterations of documentaries about politicians. Most are paint-by-numbers, talking-head-driven films that play out more like a movie version of a Wikipedia article than something that uses the medium of film to its advantage. Helen and the Bear is not one of those traditional documentaries. Director Alix Blair’s film is part of the 2025 Cleveland International Film Festival programming, and it tells the story of Helen and Pete McCloskey in the later years of their marriage.
The reason Helen and the Bear doesn’t play like the average documentary about a politician is because the focus is on Helen, not Pete. That’s not to say that Pete plays no role, but this is not a movie that’s meant to be informative about his political career. There are mentions of Pete’s political journey, his service in the Marine Corps, and his continued activism at 96 years old, but at its heart, the film is about Helen and her relationship with Pete. The two are twenty-six apart in age and have been married for over four decades. The marriage was not without its challenges, with Pete’s focus on his career, Helen’s closeted queerness, and the many months at a time they spent apart. Now, though, their relationship shifts once again as Pete’s health declines while Helen is coming into her own.
Credit: Courtesy of Helen and Pete McCloskey’s personal archive
Helen and the Bear also bucks traditional documentary stylings to take a verité approach with its subjects. Beyond that, there’s a tactile sensation to the movie as the camera pans over hundreds of Helen’s journals and photos of the couple throughout the years. The documentary is interspersed with quotes of Helen’s throughout the years, a neat summation of the wide-ranging emotions that have carried her through her relationship with Pete. What makes the film so compelling is the dynamic between the two of them. It’s not lovey-dovey all the time, but no relationship is. Maybe the enduring strength of their marriage is the fact that they’re willing to admit they’re not perfect, that they question if the marriage was the right choice. What’s obvious is that there is a profound love between them. The audience sees them at their most vulnerable in frustrated, sincere, and loving moments.
Credit: Alix Blair
For over four decades, Helen and Pete’s lives have been intertwined. Despite being in the same house for all these years, they are, at times, living in parallel planes of existence. As well as they know each other and as physically close in proximity as they are, there are moments when they’re strangers to one another. Helen and the Bear’s ability to showcase these two opposing, yet true, realities is the film’s greatest strength. As Pete experiences a health scare, Helen is forced to reckon with the inevitable looming absence of her husband, while also aware of the potential for a freedom she hasn’t known for many years. It’s possible to exist in both worlds, to grieve and yet be excited at the prospect of the future.
Helen and the Bear has an impressive amount of archival footage of the lives of this couple. Much of it was shot in the home they’re currently living in. Editor Katrina Taylor seamlessly cuts back and forth in time so we see the couple as they were and as they are in the present day. It’s lyrical, and a beautiful means of reinforcing that we’re all the sum of our past experiences. Certain places, certain people, and certain sensory sensations allow us to time travel effortlessly. Even if you remove Pete and Helen’s political activism, Helen and the Bear is an entrancing documentary of the ways relationships morph as time goes by.
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