This version of the story is about “Procession”First appeared in the Documentary Issue of ’s awards magazine.
Robert Greene, Director of the film “The Re-enactment” has spent a lot of his career studying how performance and re-enactment can lead to deeper truths in films like The Shining. “Kate Plays Christine” “Bisbee ’17,”However, therapy is a form of performance. “Procession.”
The film features six survivors of childhood sexual abuse by Catholic priests.
This movie started when I saw a video of a conference with survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.
Yeah. I wouldn’t say it was a crisis, but I was trying to think very deeply about why I make documentaries. What’s the point? What’s the point of making these movies. And I really settled on this idea that if I’m not able to help people, why do I want to do it? I was then able to take a journey that led me to that video. It was amazing to see the power in their words and their faces.
I was also really taken by the fact that this is the one thing that I usually can’t handle. Hearing about child abuse — prior to making this film, this is a story that I would turn off. It was shocking to me that I was actually contributing to the silence that made it possible. This combination of where I was at the time in my life and work, then being moved by their presence is what started this process.
Your films often used re-enactments in the past. Do you have any new ideas about their worth?
Yeah. I’m discovering that re-enactments were never a thing that I cared about per se. It’s that idea that you can stage things to work through things. In “Kate Plays Christine,” it was watching us try to stage something that shouldn’t be seen. In “Bisbee,”It was making a point regarding American history and the historical trauma that it causes. Here, it’s about moving towards something therapeutic. It is what I think I was trying to do before, but I just didn’t understand the language.
I know the power of making a movie together — building a set, taking on clothes, even clothes as charged and awful as the uniforms of these abusers. One of the goals of the film is to de-power these spaces, these robes of power — taking the clothing and the symbols and the rituals away from God and the Church and putting them back in the space of human understanding.
In this film, you are the instigator of these men going into dark places in a way they wouldn’t have done except for your movie. It must be a huge responsibility.
It does. It was a collaborative effort between Rebecca Randles, a survivor’s lawyer, and Monica Pinney, a trauma therapist. We looked at it like we were making a sandbox, with safe walls around it so we could have fun and be productive. It was also designed to be checked multiple times.
Because this type of trauma can be exhausting, the men decided to do it. It crushes you in tiny ways every day. They tried everything. This was almost exactly like. “What have I got to lose?”They wanted viewers, survivors and others to see that healing can be achieved, that it is possible to take steps forward in your life. I think we’ve helped move their lives forward by doing this together, and they helped me move my life forward. I’m actually now in therapy for the first time in my life — and not because this was so tough, but because I see the potential of it. They saved me just as much as I helped them.
These men experience real breakthroughs at times in the film. That was your feeling while filming the men?
Totally. I would even go as far as to say that we probably have more footage that feels like breakthroughs, but we didn’t want to overstate things. It is very difficult to heal. There’s the idea that nothing that will ever fully heal these guys because of what happened — what was taken from them cannot be given back. However, I believe this was a helpful process.
It was the opposite of what they’ve been told again and again and again, which is, “We don’t believe you.”The process was quite the opposite. In those moments, there were many breakthroughs. And the truth is, it’s still not over. These cathartic moments still happen every time we show the movie. They can talk about it and be open to people without being embarrassed. This is truly a life-long project. The film is just a snapshot of an overall process that we’re going to be on together for the rest of our lives.
In the past year, a lot of nonfiction films have focused on various aspects of religion. Is there something about these times that makes people want to explore religion through their films?
I think we’re at a point where we’re exploring. Because religious systems dominate our lives in many ways, there is unfortunately a strong relationship between religions and trauma. It is not an exploration or exploration of religion that is happening, but rather an exploration and interpretation of some of our past experiences. I think we’re just starting the process, as a society, of trying to understand trauma.
And so to me, that’s what’s in the ether. How did religion and churches work? What were the effects on people within them? And how can they help or hurt others? Because they’re such a powerful part of so many people’s lives, iit’s crucial to understanding the sort of trauma that we’ve all faced.
Read more from ’s documentary magazine here.
