Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
“We understood one thing: never ask Dad what he does for work.”
Filmmaker Mike Lobel confronts a long-hidden family secret in a quest to heal his relationship with his father.
Don’t Come Upstairs is a feature-length documentary in which Mike investigates the secret his father kept hidden from him and his siblings for decades.
At the center is Mike’s father— a charming but intense man who operates in the shadows. His children were taught early not to probe. Mike’s mother, Susie, held the family together while facing her own challenges.
As an adult and filmmaker, Mike turns the camera on his family once more. To the questions that shaped his youth: What was his father hiding? Why was the truth off-limits? And what did it cost them?
Mike sifts through old home videos and photos, interviews his family, and films the same toys he did as a kid to recreate childhood memories, recurring nightmares, and his father’s secret life.
The film wrestles with the fear that many children of complex parents carry: Am I doomed to repeat this? As Mike contemplates becoming a father himself, he confronts the uncomfortable truth that emotional inheritance doesn’t skip a generation unless someone is brave enough to face it.
With an unflinching gaze, Don’t Come Upstairs explores the resilience required to break the cycle—and the messy beauty of a family trying to find their way back to each other.
Title: Don't Come Upstairs (2025)
Director: Mike Lobel
“We understood one thing: never ask Dad what he does for work.”
Filmmaker Mike Lobel confronts a long-hidden family secret in a quest to heal his relationship with his father.
Don’t Come Upstairs is a feature-length documentary in which Mike investigates the secret his father kept hidden from him and his siblings for decades.
At the center is Mike’s father— a charming but intense man who operates in the shadows. His children were taught early not to probe. Mike’s mother, Susie, held the family together while facing her own challenges.
As an adult and filmmaker, Mike turns the camera on his family once more. To the questions that shaped his youth: What was his father hiding? Why was the truth off-limits? And what did it cost them?
Mike sifts through old home videos and photos, interviews his family, and films the same toys he did as a kid to recreate childhood memories, recurring nightmares, and his father’s secret life.
The film wrestles with the fear that many children of complex parents carry: Am I doomed to repeat this? As Mike contemplates becoming a father himself, he confronts the uncomfortable truth that emotional inheritance doesn’t skip a generation unless someone is brave enough to face it.
With an unflinching gaze, Don’t Come Upstairs explores the resilience required to break the cycle—and the messy beauty of a family trying to find their way back to each other.
Title: Don't Come Upstairs (2025)
Director: Mike Lobel
