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Filmmaking Kennedy finds the outsiders
One of her most recent nonfiction movies is "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib."
Rory Kennedy, the youngest daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, speaks Friday at the Tulsa Town Hall. Kennedy has focused on directing nonfiction films that bring marginalized issues to mainstream attention.
Courtesy
By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
Published: 10/24/2009 2:21 AM
Last Modified: 10/24/2009 3:53 AM
Robert F. Kennedy once said, "Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
His youngest daughter, Rory Kennedy, might amend that speech to include, "or pick up a camera and make a documentary."
Kennedy was the Tulsa Town Hall speaker Friday and discussed her career as a documentary filmmaker who, through her Moxie Fireworks production company, has made more than 20 nonfiction films.
Kennedy said her interest in film came when she was casting about for a career. She knew she wanted to devote her life to something that would positively affect society.
"But I wasn't sure what I could do," she said. "I considered going to law school and becoming a lawyer, or going into elective politics."
At the same time, she became increasingly aware that the "mainstream media" was not using its power to serve the public as well as it could or should. It was evident to her that there was a "narrowing focus, that the mainstream media was not focusing on issues that were marginalized, or presenting the voices of those not usually heard in everyday life.
"So I decided to try and get those voices into the mainstream," Kennedy said, by "bringing difficult subject matter to as large a national audience as possible and try to make a difference."
Kennedy presented excerpts from five of the films she directed.
Her
first film, "Women of Substance," documented how programs designed to help women deal with substance abuse were in fact discriminating against women who were pregnant or had children they wanted to keep with them as they tried to overcome their addictions.
Her first full-length film, "American Hollow," chronicled the life of a family that lived in semi-isolation in a region of the Appalachian Mountains. "A Boy's Life," which was shown Thursday night at the Circle Cinema, was another story set in the South, about a boy whose mental illness was exacerbated by his dysfunctional family.
One of her most recent films, "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib," examined the scandal of abuse and torture at the Iraqi prison.
"I confess I had my preconceived ideas about the people who could commit such acts," Kennedy said. "So it was very disarming to meet these people and to see their humanity. When I asked them why they did what they did, what I heard over and over was, 'We were told to.' So any of us, whether we like it or not, may be capable of doing horrible things if we were in that situation."
Before her public lecture, Kennedy spoke to students from Bishop Kelley and Charles Page high schools about her life and work.
James D. Watts Jr. 581-8478
james.watts@tulsaworld.com
By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
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