This Needs To STOP

Today, I was struck by an exhibit at the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian entitled

The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists

The introduction asked visitors:

What do your fears look like? Are they located in the dark or in a blinding light? Do they feel hot or hopelessly cold? And what or who is it that scares you or deserves your condemnation? People and places fracturing and splitting apart? Forces of nature spun out of control? A senseless war in which men blow off one another’s heads? The artists in this section explore these questions and others, for hell can be found in a passion for land or religion if it leads to war; it can even be embodied by a beached whale. This is a hell in which we never see ourselves and others fully but always in bits and pieces. What would your hell look like?

That last question?  I thought about it and very quickly something popped into mind.

For much of my adult life I have had the same nightmare.

It usually involves me in some dire situation, often being chased or threatened by a man, desperately trying to get someone's, anyone's attention and yet, when I open my mouth to scream for help — nothing comes out.

Nothing.

No scream. No yell.  No screech.  No sound.

It often ends with me waking — in a complete sweat, shaking and feeling horrible.

Occasionally, very small, hoarsely whispered cries of " Help ! "  " Help !! " do escape and rouse my husband who then gently awakens me to say, "You're having a bad dream."

It IS a bad dream, a hellish dream in fact, that always rattles me to my core and leaves me feeling vulnerable and shaken.

And what really disturbs me is that whenever I mention this, I've heard several women (even my friend's mother) share that they too have this same sort of nightmare.  A nightmare where mouth open, no sound emerges and horrifyingly they are unable to call for help.

Why?

Do men ever experience this dilemma in a dream?  Or is it only women?

Recently, I was profoundly disturbed by a documentary I watched on Netflix — 

IT HAPPENED HERE

... a compelling new documentary from director Lisa F. Jackson and producer Marjorie Schwartz Nielsen, explores sexual assault on campuses through the personal testimonials of five survivors who transform their experiences into a springboard for change.

In raw and intimate interviews, the students describe surviving sexual assault only to be met with apathy, disbelief, blame and retaliation from the authorities when they tried to report the crime. When they tried to get justice, they were ignored, belittled and shamed, while their attackers remained on campus with impunity. But instead of hiding away in shame, they chose to speak out, and found a way to force institutional change. 

[from the website http://www.ithappenedhere.org]

We live in a culture that accepts rape.  The rape of women during wars; the rape of women by abusive partners; the rape of women in the military; the rape of women on college campuses.

I can't imagine what their nightmares are like and the hell that each has gone through.  

In this film five young women summon the courage and resolve to speak up and yet their voices are ignored and while my nightmare, is not about rape, it IS about feeling completely and utterly powerless.

Feeling powerless is a hell.  

It's time for all of us to work to end the way women who have been raped are treated. There is NO justification for excusing rape.

If you are someone on a college campus, in a military institution, a police station, or in any way privy to helping a survivor of rape, just imagine the person opposite you is your sister, daughter, mother or friend, and STAND UP.

It's time for all our voices to rise up in a very loud crescendo and say,

NO MORE.

What can we do to stop this?  What can YOU do to stop this nightmare ?

Love Letter to Aaron Sorkin

www.businessinsider.com

I am an admitted TV junkie.  I watch ALOT.  But not all that I watch is good let alone great.  In my book, some of the greatest TV is created by a master — Aaron Sorkin.  About ten years younger (and far more successful) than I am, Sorkin writes screenplays and television series that always deliver.   This is a special talent that should be recognized beyond the entertainment industry.  Sorkin is so good at what he does that he may as well have a crystal ball. His genius series The West Wing forecasts the phenomenon of Barack Obama on the political scene.  

Barack Obama is elected to the U.S. Senate on November 2, 2004.  Eight days later on November 10 (in the episode, Liftoff) West-Wing viewers are introduced to Matthew Santos — a Latino-Texan Congressman who wants to get out of the House because he can't get anything done.  With Josh nipping at his heels, this barely known, improbable underdog candidate travels a rocky road through the primaries and the election, and two seasons later, in April of 2006, amazingly — Matt Santos is elected President of the United States.  Less than a year later, Barack Obama announces his candidacy for President of the United States and, against all odds, wins the election in 2008.  Life imitating art...created by Aaron Sorkin.  But let's go back to Aaron Sorkin's beginnings as entertainer/educator extraordinaire.

Aaron starts out in the movies with 
A Few Good Men and Malice and then, then he does The American President — a smart-talking fast-paced dramedy that takes us inside the inner workings of the White House and shows us how a president and his staff navigate politics, the presidency, and all the personalities that create the operational infrastructure it takes to legislate and move the party’s agenda.  Complicate this with competing special interests, power-grabs, and a young handsome president (Michael Douglas) recently widowed with a young daughter to raise amidst the chaos and scrutiny of the non-stop demands of holding the highest office in the United States.  Add to that a romantic entanglement with an environmental lobbyist (Annette Benning) and you’ve got classic Sorkin — a contemporary story  loaded with engaging, entertaining characters.

Sorkin's first TV series Sports Night, was an ensemble "about a fictional sports news show. It focuses on the friendships, pitfalls, and ethical issues the creative talent of the program face while trying to produce a good show under constant network pressure."  His initial offering to the TV audience only makes it for 45 episodes between 1998-2000.  It wins some awards over its short run, but this award sums it up:  2000 Winner of the TV Guide Award — category? — Best Show You're Not Watching.

But before he's dead on the tube, lucky for us, Aaron Sorkin is already at work on what will be his most exceptional, most wonderful, most engaging and entertaining work — 
The West Wing. 

I love, love, love The West Wing.  My thoughtful family gave me the complete series for Mother's Day one year and it's still one of the best presents.  This work resonates with me because Sorkin plumbs the depths of everyday ethical dilemmas in whatever context he places his stories in.  When I originally wrote about this series it was to show how teachers and parents could use television (quality television) to explore ethics and character.  I even sent a copy of the piece with a letter telling Sorkin was a great educational tool the show was, but (sad for me) my letter got returned — unopened.  [Maybe they thought I was pitching my own show without an agent?]


The West Wing with its fast-talking, wise-cracking, power-walking the halls of the White House, goes on for seven seasons and 154 episodes.  And season after season, I'm left wanting more.

So when it finally comes to an end (with Jimmy Smits as our unlikely-but-wonderful President) Sorkin follows this up with Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip a funny (short-lived) series about the making of a Saturday-Night-Live-type comedy show and again we are behind the scenes to see the people, the politics, and the pranks of life while producing television.  Though the show didn’t run more than one season, Aaron quickly follows its demise with two films:  Charlie Wilson's War in 2007 and The Social Network in 2010.




Though both were entertaining movies, I can't say either really did it for me but then, then in 2011 Sorkin comes through with a film I’m completely nuts over — Moneyball — and my entertainment hero's back in the game.   Moneyball is a movie about baseball, about a baseball manager to be exact and his quest to develop a winning team with the lowest budget imaginable.  Starring Brad Pitt as the real-life Oakland A's manager Billy Beane, this film is incredibly rich, entertaining, warm and whenever it's on TV — I stop changing channels and watch.  And I don't even like baseball! Credit Aaron Sorkin.

Before last week, we didn't have HBO, but after seeing Season One of The Newsroom on DVD, we signed up and got on board.  It's classic Sorkin — sharp, witty, sarcastic, contemporary and compelling.  News Anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) and Executive Producer former-fiancee Mackenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer-we share the same birthday!) have managed to survive meltdowns and mistakes, stay at the network without completely crucifying each other over their broken relationship — and now we get to see if they maintain their jobs, ratings, and their newly revived engagement.  Thank God!  [As Will says after Mac accepts his proposal of marriage.  Can you tell how happy Sorkin's TV makes me?]

Given his track record maybe it’s time I check out Sports Night cause when the credits say "Created by Aaron Sorkin" — in my book, you just know it's gonna be good.

Short Term 12

Maui Film Festival poster 

Simply put, this is a tremendously moving film.  It made me think, laugh, cry, and left me pondering the horrible damage done to some in childhood and how that damage impacts individuals for years and years to come — in ways both bad and good. 


Short Term 12 is a wrenching look at life inside a juvenile therapeutic facility staffed by twenty-somethings Grace (winningly played by Brie Larson) and Mason (John Gallagher Jr — playing the boyfriend you ALWAYS wanted to have*) who are exactly right for their jobs.  Close in age to their charges, they understand, relate, support, and yet hold firm to the structure the residential facility insists on to keep everyone safe.  

New to the line staff of counselors is Nate, a real newbie who blunders in the usual egocentric ways of a collegiate do-gooder with little understanding or empathy for those he has come to assist.  The team accepts his ineptitude and (to our vicarious relief) works with him to grow into his role.

At times, our earnest Grace chafes at the bureaucracy and when one newcomer's case story hits too close to home, Grace oversteps the boundaries and let's her protective maternal self burst out of line and leap to Jayden’s rescue with surprising results.

Different elements struck me throughout the film as we are drawn into the troubled worlds of each adolescent — Luis, Sammy, Jayden, and Marcus who is poised to age-out of the residence as he turns 18.  Trying to avoid his impending release and desperately acting out, Marcus is soothingly settled by Mason who allows him to perform the rap he's written (overlooking the "cussing") that rips your heart out and leaves Mason speechless.

After coming to terms with his impending departure, Marcus asks to have his head shaved and — seeing no apparent downside — Grace and Mason oblige.  As his tightly knit curls are shorn and his buzz-cut head is revealed, also revealed is the reason for this stripping away.

In the darkened theatre I had a visceral reaction to Marcus' wish.   My daughter recently declared her intention to shave her head.  At first, I could not fathom why anyone would choose to strip away a mane of lovely, long, wavy, beautiful hair but as she talked and educated me about her feelings — as well as issues related to femininity, hiding, emotional cleansing — I began to actually listen and hear why this was as important to her as it was to Marcus.

Like peeling back the layers of a large and bulbous onion, this film not only shows us an inner view of the kids and their issues, but slowly, painfully exposes why Mason and Grace are doing the jobs they are doing.

Air streaming past her face, dissolving her anxiety and anger in the wind — Grace manages her emotions by furiously biking through the night — and Short Term 12 glides us through the chaos of damaged psyches as this motley crew of adolescents and young adults struggles to overcome the past and move forward as a family.

*John Gallagher also plays another boyfriend you always wanted to have — Jim Harper on The Newsroom.

Twenty Feet From Stardom

Featured on the cover is "newcomer" Judith Hill.

And the colored girls go 
Doo do doo, doo do doo, doo do doo

That lyric from Lou Reed's "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" is the perfect introduction to Twenty Feet From Stardom — a documentary film that profiles and (at long last) gives credit to the predominantly African-American women who were (and still are) the amazing and outstanding back-up singers whose voices enriched popular music over the past six decades of rock-and-roll.

Darlene Love, Claudia Lennear, Lisa Fischer, and Táta Vega, are not household names but once you meet them (and others) you'll recognize the sweet sounds of the harmonies they provided for Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder and Sting — to name just a few.

This film takes us on a journey through the great groups, the great singers, and the great songs of a rich musical past that is marred by the way in which these women were taken advantage of and by-passed despite their greatness.  And try as they might, none were able to breakout of the backup line and make it as a solo artist.  Sadly.

The day after I saw this documentary, as I flipped channels on my car radio, I heard Mick Jagger's "Gimme Shelter" and broke into a smile.  I now know Merry Clayton arrived in curlers at the recording studio for that gig and it is her voice belting out the lyric that made her cringe:

Rape, murder; it's just a shot away, it's JUST A SHOT AWAY!

In the film, we hear both Jagger and Clayton recount how in 1969 she received a call in the middle of the night to come record back-up for this new British group in town called the Rolling Stones. 

And did she ever.  

Merry Clayton's exhilarating voice made that vocal, imprinted that powerful and shrill refrain on your brain and helped make that Stones song a powerhouse of pleasure.  

Too bad "Merry" was credited as "Mary" on the album cover.

If you wanna give credit where credit is due, go see 20 Feet From Stardom at a theatre near you.  You'll be dancin' in your seat.