Every time I start thinking of canceling my Netflix subscription, a film comes along that I'd regret having missed --- so it looks now as if that monster of a streaming service and I will remain hitched for another season.
The film this time is "Procession," which I watched last evening --- described in the headline for Ben Kenigsberg's New York Times review as "Art as Exorcism," an experimental documentary in which six survivors of abuse by Roman Catholic priests use filmmaking to confront traumatic memories.
Film maker Robert Greene, whose project it is, gives equal billing as collaborators to the six victims, now men in their middle years. Greene became interested in the story following a 2018 press conference in Kansas City by four men who came forward to tell their stories and shed light on the subject. Some of the participants are among his collaborators.
The film is set largely in the greater Kansas City area, but segments were filmed in Cheyenne, Wyoming, as well at recreational lakes in Missouri's popular tourist areas as the abuse victims revisit the scenes of their abuse, working toward catharsis.
The therapeutic mechanism in the film is called drama therapy and five of the six men wrote scenes, built sets and then acted out (with assistance from volunteers) the scripted memories. The film is as much about the process as it is the scenes, however, so there's no sense here of a staged production within another production.
In less skilled hands, this could have been an extraordinarily clumsy process; as it is, it works amazingly well and has received consistently positive reviews --- even though it's hard to watch sometimes.
Although the setting here is specific --- clergy abuse within the Catholic Church --- the lessons apply generally to all forms of child abuse and the unforgettable long-term trauma abusers inflict on innocent victims. It's a film well worth watching.
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