(RNS) — Robert Greene is an expert in weaving memories and reality. As the director of a new Netflix documentary about survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, "The Parade," Green never allows men to recreate their trauma for too long before interrupting the narrative.
The staff redo the set. The survivors take a break and deal with the details from their experience. Remind us that what we are watching is actually the production of five short films written, directed and performed by men themselves.
The intersection between Green's film and the healing reenactment the men are making is so heartbreaking. We see the connection between remembering and overcoming their trauma. Churches—their destroyed spaces—become pure workplaces, movie sets.
"If you take a step back and you look at the lights and the microphone, you see all these staff wandering around, it provides this level of distance and says,'Oh, this is not real," Monica Finney said. She is a licensed drama therapist and owner of the Heart Work Studio in Kansas City, Missouri, and she is the filming consultant for The Parade.
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With the help of Finney, Mike Foreman, Ed Gavagan, Dan Laurin, Joe Eldred, Michael Sandridge and Tom Viviano retelled through documentaries and plays , Tell their stories using common methods in drama therapy, which is a treatment method that uses projection and role-playing to solve problems of past trauma.
In drama therapy, "Don't ask people,'How are you doing today?' There are usually more creative things," Finney said. It is not always as complicated as a short film. "I like to put a lot of different postcards with different images on them. I can pick up one that looks like they feel today."
This process usually continues with some warm-up activities, and then a more complete repeat. "Playing a role—whether from your life, or parallel to your life in some way—can really give you new insights," Finney said. "Maybe it can change the outcome of what happened in the past or In the middle, explore different endings and rehearse something for real life to practice the behavior you want to see."
These six people appeared in the "parade." Image courtesy of Netflix
The "parade" step goes beyond the conventional methods of drama therapy. The true cure of drama therapy is often the process, not the finished product of the drama. Male films-and the "parade" itself-emphasize the resulting work, not the process.
But many processes are shown in the documentary. When revisiting the trauma of the past and writing the script, they formed a strong family bond with each other in the process of helping each other to recover and grow. Many people shared almost the same abuse stories, and some were even abused by the same pastor. It is a beautiful and heartbreaking thing to watch these men realize that they are not alone.
Their treatment also contained a lot of fear and anger. A hired actor played the role of a young victim in some short films, while men played other roles—some even played pastors. These more difficult roles provide opportunities for themselves to regain power.
"One of them asked me on the first day,'Will drama therapy let me wear the costume of a priest and pretend to be a priest?'" Finney said. "I said,'No, drama therapy will ask you, is that useful or harmful?' Drama therapy will ask this question and hope you decide what perspective you need to gain."
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The most important achievement of this film is that it describes the abuse, almost completely without bombarding the audience with a lot of objective facts and data.
In general, it ends with hope: if justice is not expected to be done, only hope that a cure is possible.
"This is what mental health looks like," Finney said. "This is what male mental health looks like. This is what it feels like to work in trauma."