Living Through Loss

Rob Mor has a gift for engaging impactful storytelling. It’s a creative muscle he flexes as an award-winning filmmaker and the founder and CEO of Tallboy. The boutique marketing agency crafts content for brands and entertainment companies including Netflix.

Mor’s new documentary Echoes of Loss: Eight Days in Israel is now streaming on YouTube. Echoes is a manifesto on grief, both personal and collective. In 2019, Mor’s wife, Noel, died from ovarian cancer. After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel, Mor decided to explore both his grief and that of Israelis coping in the aftermath of the attack.

Here, Mor shares his thoughts on healing through film and finding resilience in the darkest times. Echoesofloss.com

You’ve experienced unimaginable personal loss. Noel was diagnosed with ovarian cancer four months after your daughter Leia was born and then passed away when Leia was just 2. What role does filmmaking play in your healing process?

Film is a great way to share what you’re feeling. I started coming into my healing process once I launched my TikTok and started sharing my grief through video. I also made a short film called Ghosted about a widower who magically matches with his wife on a dating app. It allowed me to call back some of those initial moments of falling in love with Noel, and I was able to share that grief and loss with a wider audience.

Resilience is a recurring theme in Echoes of Loss: Eight Days in Israel , in which you state the “human spirit is very strong.” Where do you find your resilience?

I think it comes from a purpose bigger than yourself, whether that’s a child, business, or even a plant—just something you need to keep alive more than yourself. The resilience that I saw in the Israeli people while I was over there…they’re literally in an active war right now and grieving the loss of their family members. [They] just keep going. It goes back to the [sayings] ‘one foot in front of the other’ and ‘one step at a time.’ Those are powerful repetitive mantras that I use daily.

Echoes of Loss opens with the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s quote, “In a time of increasing darkness, we must respond with an increasing of light.” What is the light you hope your documentary brings?

The light I’d like to share is one for the Jewish people and Israelis saying, ‘We’re resilient people, we will come out of this stronger.’ Secondly, for the grieving families that I interviewed, what’s helped me is sharing my story, whether it’s on TikTok, YouTube, or film. [I wanted] to give these grievers an opportunity to share their grief, pain, and their story and I’m hoping–I’m 99% sure it’s helped them.

You’ve amassed nearly 25,000 followers on TikTok. Your videos, which offer snippets of your life, have 1.4 million views. Why do you think your videos resonate with so many people?

I try to be as natural as possible to share exactly what’s going on, whether it’s my grief or triggers that come up. I want to come off as authentic. If I can touch one person who is feeling something similar, then they don’t beat themselves up. Grief can be very isolating and any way to alleviate that isolation is a positive thing.

Any advice on how to support a grieving loved one?

It’s always okay to reach out. The simple phrase, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about you’ has been really helpful [in] texts and notes I’ve gotten over the years. Don’t be afraid of their sadness coming into your life. Feel sad with them. The worst reaction I’ve gotten is when people are so uncomfortable they can’t hold even a moment of empathy with you. Hold it with me. Don’t try to move past it real quick.