Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

I had the chance over the last two evenings to view prescreenings of The Human Experience, Grassroots Films first full length feature film. I am not a film critic so I will limit (though not eliminate) my comments about aesthetic and cinematographic concerns and focus instead on the ability of the film to deliver its message in a high impact manner. I make this caveat because while I recognize my lack of expertise, this media is still more about appealing to the “masses” than it is for conforming to the tastes of the critics.

The first screening was to an audience of about 350 people, primarily made up of college students, on the campus of the University of Illinois. The second screening was to an off campus community of almost 900 people, primarily, but not exclusively, from the local Catholic parishes. The feedback I have received in talking to those who viewed the film has been tremendous.

After viewing the movie, students have come up to me and shared how much the film has positively impacted them and changed their outlook on everything from the way they have viewed their lives and themselves to what is really important in life.

I have also had people calling me to tell me about the reactions they have had. One person called me to tell me that the morning show personality on a local talk radio show had seen the movie with his son. This man went on and on about the film and how much it had affected him. He talked about the reorientation in thinking that this film evokes. A reorientation that he seemed to think we all need to experience. He was only sorry that he did not know how to tell people how to be able to see it.

A young mother who had been at the prescreening also called me asking how to get in touch with the orphan’s home in Peru that was depicted in the film. She was very moved by what she had seen and wanted to do something to help. She thought that it was one of those movies that you just will never be able to get out of your head.

So what is it about this movie that is affecting all of these people as it does? Well, of course, it is first the message that the documentary delivers. However, the significant point here is that the movie is able to convey its message in such a compelling manner. It is so compelling that a multitude of viewers are open to listening, understanding, and allowing themselves to be transformed by the message.

The film is in the documentary genre. It is about two brothers who were abused by their father until their teenage years when they moved into the St. Francis House in Brooklyn, NY. This is not in the film, but the St. Francis House is an apostolate of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (Fr. Groeschel’s order) and is run by a former entrepreneur/musician who is a gifted, loving, and giving man who gave up all his worldly possessions to become a father to boys and young men who have been severely damaged because they have not had good fathers, or many, because they have not known their fathers at all. Back to the film.

The two brothers, Jeffrey (the lead) and Cliff Azize, set out to find the meaning of life through various experiences: living homeless on the streets of NYC, visiting an orphanage of physically disabled “castoffs” in Peru, and finally a visit with AIDS victims and a leper colony in Ghana. These events teach them that the meaning of life is to be found in faith, hope, and love. The end of the film is a concrete expression of this meaning when Jeffrey decides he must reconcile with his father after not having seen him for over ten years.

The movie has a “raw” quality to its cinematography. It’s shots are often partial views of the subject and many times done with a moving camera. They use copious of the “special” effects which are now becoming common in media focused on younger viewers. Much of the musical score is original composition and it seems to me that the camera and score come together in such a way to convey the experiences in a powerfully affective manner, effectively getting the message across which they wish to convey. Some further comments on the message.

I don’t want to overly harmonize the content with an arbitrary scheme which I do not believe was explicitly intended. Nevertheless, I believe that Grassroots was very much motivated by John Paul II. This much is clear from discussions with them and in the questions that they propose and then set out trying to get the viewers to contemplate and struggle with. These are the ultimate questions JPII always would return to: who am I; why am I here; what is my purpose? It is perhaps not coincidental then, that the three experiences I mentioned above seem to correspond to what I believe I have discovered to be the three main keys to JPII’s view of the human person. These “hermeneutical” keys all arise from Gaudium et spes and can be paraphrased as: 1) man is created in the image of a trinitarian God; 2) Christ reveals man to Himself; and 3) man can only fulfill himself by giving himself away as a sincere gift.

Just as all three keys interpenetrate one another, so the three main experiences have all of these elements in them. They all three reveal that man is made in the image of God, that Christ reveals man to himself, and that man is made to give himself away in giving relationships. Moreover, all of these experiences reflect faith, hope, and love. However, I think that each one emphasizes one of these keys most especially.

The discussions with the homeless on the streets of NYC can best be described as eye opening. They do not give you much in the way of “new” information but they do awaken one to problematic ways in which many of us have been conditioned to react to those living on the street. The director did a fabulous job in conveying the simple humanity of the homeless; even the most troubled of them. One common thread and surprising thread among the homeless was the almost universal expression of their hope. None indicated that they thought life to be meaningless. Much the opposite. Many explicitly acknowledged that God had a plan for them. Of note here is that during the question and answer period after the showing, one woman asked how much of the editing was done in order to “cherry pick” the responses. In other words, what percentage of negative, hopeless comments did they leave on the cutting room floor? The producer answered “none.” He expressed their surprise at what they found. There was the positive affirmation of hope expressed in almost all cases, but no hopelessness.

One encounter especially stays with me. A homeless lady tells of her experience when she first became homeless. She was standing on the street with some little abandoned puppies nearby. Several people came over, concerned and took the puppies home to save them from the cold. They left her standing there. She said that she was taught by her rabbi that we are all brothers and that when your brother is in trouble you are supposed to help him. It causes one to pause and reflect on, if not convict oneself, of how he might have acted in the same situation.

Nevertheless, with all of these encounters with homeless people one over arching theme comes through. That is, they convey a reminder of the dignity of each and every human being. We know this because he is created in the image and likeness of God. Perhaps it is the contradiction of seeing these “images of God” in the least dignified of states or perhaps it is their bearing witness to being treated that way that reminds the viewer of this truth. It is because we are created in His image that we all can have hope.

The experience of the little abandoned children in Peru, most abandoned because of physical deformities or physical pathologies due to maltreatment, was a journey into love. These innocent young children reflected the joy of living. They offered themselves in unconditional love to those who cared for them. They elicited love and compassion from the young men who traveled to Peru to care volunteer at the home. Two of the children, Victor and Angela, were highlighted. Victor has only one leg and no arms. Angela was abused terribly by her father and is missing one foot. Even if they had not told me, it was clear that the Grassroots team fell in love with these children and they were able to make audience do the same. Just in experiencing the film, one discovers in a very limpid way that when one gives himself to another for their own sake, he experiences what I call the trinitarian paradox. That is, that one discovers that he can only find himself by giving himself away as a sincere gift. This is authentic love. Love is clearly a disinterested and total gift of self.

The third experience was a visit on one occasion with AIDS patients and on another, with a colony of lepers in Ghana, Africa. One scene was of a young mother holding a bright eyed, beautiful little baby. This baby had a precocious temperance. Flights of fancy might allow one to think that the baby knows and peacefully accepts his poor prospects. That is because both mother and child were infected with AIDS. It is a picture that tears at your heartstrings. However, her message was one of faith. She expresses the need to be bold, to show strength and express faith for other mothers in the same situation. Another young mother was also dying of AIDS. She was crying for almost the entire time on film. That is until one of the young cast members, Matt, a housemate of Jeff and Cliff, asked her a question.

Matt was very affected by this experience. Matt’s mom had died of AIDS when he was nine and he has never really gotten over it. He laments that he was never able to talk to his mother about her death or to be consoled by her to prepare him with words of wisdom for the rest of his life without her. In what seemed to be his attempt to avoid this for her child, and perhaps in a way, even hear the voice of his mother, he asks this young mother what she would have her child know after she is gone. For the first time she no longer cries. In fact, she seems to take strength in the faith she would choose to leave for her child. She thinks about it for a few second and then says that she would have her child know that he must always have faith in God. He must trust and obey him and it is this that he will find his happiness and prosperity.

FInally, they visit the leper colony.  Here they meet with, on a superficial level, grotesque appearances.  However, it is not long before they begin to see the beauty of the human persons they begin to come to know.  The question is asked: in such a situation in which you have been cast off by family, friends, and society and your bodies are literally decaying away, what allows you to get up in the morning.  The answer is: the community.  They are happy because they live for one another.  They also expressed joy at the visit of others.  One of those with leprosy pointed out that all were the same; the visitors were also their brothers.  This brotherhood of man in which all men live for his brothers is what Jesus Christ revealed to us about ourselves.

It is all to easy to overstate an experience when one is still in the penumbra of that experiences’ affective aura. However, I will say that I am not aware of a movie since the Passion of the Christ that seems to have such a universal affect on those who view it.  However, this is not the same jarring, visceral, emotional draining experience.  One leaves this film with uplifted hope and joy but still transformed.  The Human Experience is much more than a film; it is an intense, transforming, human experience.