Movies (April, 2008)

I saw approximately 150 movies in 2007, more than I've seen in any previous year and probably more than I'll see this year. Of the new releases, Jindabyne was the finest one I saw, challenged closely by The Lives of Others. This is the review of Jindabyne that I wrote for the June 20, 2007 issue of the Boise Weekly.



To Surface or Submerge



American writer Raymond Carver's short story So Much Water So Close to Home is the foundation for the Australian release, Jindabyne. It's the second time this particular story has been made into a film, having been one of several Carver stories dealt with more superfically in director Robert Altman's 1993 film Short Cuts. However in Jindabyne, director Ray Lawrence (Lantana) tackles the controversial Carver story and wisely chooses to enhance it and change the ending. The result is one of the most powerful and complex films of this or any year. Jindabyne has been nominated for over 20 Australian awards and international awards and should receive more award nominations here in the United States.



In Jindabyne, four men, Stewart (Gabriel Byrne), Carl (John Howard), Rocco (Stelios Yiakmis), and Billy (Simon Stone) leave for a weekend of fishing. After a long drive and several hours of strenuous hiking, they arrive at a wilderness river and, in setting up camp, find the body of a young woman in the river near their campsite. It's too late in the evening to hike back to the car and they're out of cell phone range. So they spend the night and then, somewhat mysteriously, go fishing the next day as originally planned before returning on the third day to report the body. When they arrive home to the New South Wales town of Jindabyne, all hell breaks loose when the fishermen's friends and families find out what they've done. The newspapers scream that the men fished over the body of a dead woman and since the woman is Aborigine and the men are white, accusations of racism are raised. The resulting furor erupts into violence and threatens to destroy families and relationships. Verbal charges are exchanged, rocks are hurled, and fists strike out while the murderer goes about his business unperturbed and unimpeded.



The acting performances in Jindabyne are outstanding, led by Byrne and Laura Linney, who plays the part of Claire, Stewart's wife. The intense Linney, who has previously been nominated for two Academy Awards, may earn herself a third nomination here with precise timing in this flawless performance. "I want to know what happened out there," Claire insists repeatedly, while others tell here, "Let it rest," and "We must move on," They don't understand Claire's need to process the embarrassing and damaging events of the weekend and do not share her sense that some evil is taking over the town. Claire keeps trying to connect with people, including the dead woman's family, and knows that things have to be discussed and processed. They cannot be allowed to drift unaddressed into the past.



Stone is especially interesting in his first film role as Billy, the rookie on this annual fishing trip, and more interested in listening to his iPod, than to sounds of the wilderness. He's out of his comfort zone, but when it comes to making decisions, he surprises everyone by responding in the most appropriate and intelligent manner. Stone is a promising actor. Even the performances of two children, Eva Lazzaro as the troubled and ominous Caylin-Calandria, and 7-year-old Sean Rees-Wemyss as the timid, but inquisitive Tom, are impressive.



Perhaps the biggest star of Jindabyne is Beatrix Christian's script. The story is not told in a capsule dealing with only the events triggered by the fishing trip, but includes experiences that have happened to the people of Jindabyne and how those experiences influence their reactions and responses to their present circumstances. Much that occurs in Jindabyne is subdued and under the surface. We aren't given all the deatails. What happened to Caylin-Calandria's mother? Why did Claire leave her family after Tom was born? Even the town has a mysterious past, having been moved years before to make room for a man-made lake. Now people say they can sometimes hear the town bell ringing under the surface of the lake.



Women and men have traditinally reacted differently to Carver's story. Women are often appalled at the fishermen's behavior, and men are more likely to adopt a "so what" attitude, since the woman was already dead and nothing could be done for her. Jindabyne adds additional complexity to the story and will have both men and women rethinking and possibly revising their responses.



This outstanding film reminds us of the complex ways our lives are interconnected with the lives of others, even strangers. There is danger everywhere, and only by payng attention and caring about others can we deftly sidestep it when it comes for us. Jindabyne is a powerful example that great filmmaking, like great literature, is much more than just entertainment. It probes into the nature and spirit of humanity and raises difficult questions for people to ponder. What is our responsibility to others, even strangers? How much effort do we place in resisting evil and in trying to rescue failing relationships? To what extent should we act as our neighbor's keeper? If the purpose of great art is to challenge people to imagine and reflect on what it means to be human, than Jindabyne is ambitious filmmaking that succeeds spectacularly.

For more of my movie reviews check the Boise Weekly at www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Archive?author=oid%3A215568

One Hundred and One Things About (& by) Me (in no particular order)

1. i was born in '48. 2. i'm amazed and thankful that i've lived this long. 3. radio is much more interesting than tv, but not as interesting as it used to be. 4. i grew up in a home with no tv. 5. "imagination is more important than knowledge" (albert einstein). 6. i love books, birds, and basketball. 7. i'm not as good as i would like to be. 8. i don't like carrot cake or german chocolate cake. 9. i've been to every state except hawaii, mississippi, alabama, and louisiana. 10. "and now the fun begins " (epitaph for a tombstone). 11. i graduated from lancaster mennonite high school in 1966. 12. i would like to join an FOR (fellowship of reconciliation) delegation to iran. 13. i love movies. 14. i read a complete book every day for several years when i was much younger. 15. i especially like art that crosses artistic boundaries or uses two or more art forms, for example, prose poems, concrete or visual poetry, photos with words and/or language, films with poetry or still photos, poetic films, literature with art, poetry with photos, graffiti sculpture (or sculptured graffiti), architecture that is more than just a structure, ie santiago calatrava (http://www.calatrava.com/), etc. 16. i want to visit iceland. 17. i occassionally record my dreams. 18. i am the father of 4 daughters. 19. karen is the mother of the same 4 daughters. 20. "hope is a thing with feathers" (emily dickinson). 21. i frequently check my e-mails. 22. i walked across el paso one day in the late sixties. 23. my mother's maidan name was hershey. 24. i didn't know i was going to live this long, but i took pretty good care of myself. 25. bookstores are my favorite shopping experience. 26. books keep following me home from bookstores. 27. i've donated a couple hundred books to a university library in virginia. 28. my childhood playground was a cemetary. 29. i don't like to use abbreviations. 30. in the past year my exercise program has changed from running and playing basketball to walking and working out at the gym. 31. bird songs and the wind sound better than anything on your ipod. 32. for 3 years i attended a one-room schoolhouse with 6 grades in the same room. 33. at my former employer, st. alphonsus regional medical center in boise, idaho, i had a lot of experience with work-related psychological abuse and the defective management that accompanies it. 34. i've been told that i'm much too trusting. 35. unions are a working person's best friend. 36. i love trains, tracks, and everything about railroads. 37. i'm a vegetarian, but i cheat occassionally. 38. i'm a mennonite, but i cheat occassionally. 39. i love to explore. 40. "the gospel without peace is as lifeless as an ocean without water" (ln). 41. i eat too much. 42. i need to lose about 20 pounds. 43. i was born in pennsylvania, lived in texas and idaho and have also "lived!!" in other places including new mexico, nevada, mexico, ireland, canada, oklahoma, oregon, kansas, colorado, arizona, ...., .... 44. i disliked junior high and high school, but i loved college. 45. i spent 13 years in college. 46. i wish i was older, a wish that, with a little blessing, comes true every minute. 47. i write movie reviews for the boise weekly (http://www.boiseweekly.com/). 48. since i work nights, i have a good reason to take a nap anytime i want to. 49. i've worked the night shift full time for 32 years. 50. i rarely sleep well at nights. 51. karen is my best friend, plus much more. 52. sometimes i tell people that i'm older than i really am. 53. i'm not particularly fond of cats, dogs, horses, or other domesticated animals. 54. i have a well-developed sense of justice. 55. karen and i have been married for 35 years ! 56. "walking is the best way to see the world..., and your neighborhood" (ln) 57. breakfast is my favorite meal and pasta my favorite food; sometimes i mix the two. 58. "a photograph is a secret about a secret; the more it tells you, the less you know" (diane arbus). 59. i love blueberries. 60. children are endlessly entertaining. 61. "there is no way to peace; peace is the way" (a.j. muste). 62. i use my degree in photography and record as a published photographer and writer as an excuse to look at anything containing words or pictures, that i find interesting. 63. weapons, corporations, governments, and miltary organizations should be more strictly regulated and receive a lot less funding. 64. writers, poets, teachers, musicians, film makers, and other artists should be less strictly regulated and receive a lot more funding. 65. a hug from karen makes my day. 66. i have 3 sisters and 1 brother. 67. i love to run. 68. for local commuting i prefer the bus or walking to driving. 69. "there is no such thing as an infallible book written in a fallible language" (ln). 70. i'm old enough to know better. 71. if my hair grew back i wouldn't know what to do with it. 72. i'm an experienced procrastinator. 73. "service is the rent you pay God for the space you occupy on earth" (barbara swaby). 74. cormac mccarthy is currently the finest living fiction writer in the US. 75." most conservative policies have the same effect on people and the planet, that a speeding freight train has on a car parked on the tracks" (ln). 76. i have 2 grandchildren. 77. my favorite little guy is zach. 78. my favorite little gal is mckayla. 79. my favorite daughter is _________!!!! 80. most of the books i read are collections of poetry. 81. "poetry is to the heart as light to the eyes" (ln). 82. "people who drive the speed limit or faster have no reason to complain about high gas prices" (ln). 83. i love new mexico. 84. my favorite film directors are robert altman, michelangelo antonioni, suzanne bier, and errol morris. 85. "cities should be built on only one side of the street." 86. i almost never buy popcorn or anything to eat and drink at the movies. 87. i have several favorite movies, but if i had to pick only one it would probably be antonioni's "the passenger." 88. i create handmade cards using my own photos. 89. i was 24, almost 25 years old when karen, who was 21, and i got married one morning at sunrise on the campus of amarillo college, in amarillo, texas. 90. i have better things to do with my brain than push hair through the top of my head. 91. if you listen, i will tell you about my life, but i also want to hear about yours. 92. sometimes i walk the 5.5 miles to or from work. 93. "war is the sum of all evils, wrapped up in one" (ln). 94. music is too valuable to use as background noise. 95. i'm interested in anything about and by anabaptists. 96. i love the wind. 97. ronald reagan was the seed that sprouted george w. bush. 98. i like long time spans between flights. 99. the biggest threat to families in the world are military organizations, and the idea that inevitably accompanies them; that it's acceptable to kill unlimited numbers of family members if we don't like the government of the country in which they live. 100. it's sad how much the people wearing earphones are missing. 101. i like to receive hand-written personal letters by mail. 102. i've worked in restaurants, hospitals, cemetaries, churches, and farms; i've made travel trailers, foam cups, tv tubes, plastic bags, pipe fittings; i've picked fruit, potatoes, planted and harvested tobacco, written and published book and movie reviews, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. 102. the most euphoric experiences i've had were climbing mountains. 103. i'm not very good with numbers. 104. thank you, and now it's your turn.

The Gravedigger

Ah, The Gravedigger!
Whose spade slices the soil and sends it sailing
into the groundbox.

Hurray for the Gravedigger!
Whose hunched back has hurled tons of dirt, heaving
it out of the earth and back again.

From the doctor who first delivers, to the Gravedigger
who deposits the final delivery, we send...
Three cheers for the Gravedigger!
Whose children play among the tombstones,
their cries echo under a canopy of blue skies
acrobats above 10,000 tightly closed eyes.

This pangyric ode I wrote in honor of my father who spent 40 plus
years working as a gravedigger, most of that time without the benefit
of a backhoe or other mechanized or motorized equipment, using primarily
a shovel, pick, and digging iron. I wrote it for Tom Trusky's
Advanced Poetry Writing class at Boise State University in April, 1993.
Trusky, one of my top two or three favorite instructors for all the 25 years
I spent in school (from first grade through college), was grading tough that day.
I only got a B for the poem. Sorry, Dad.

Darkness

I know that darkness is a friend of mine
We've held each other's hand in times of stress.
She sees when I've dropped my fervent quest
For light, to pick it up at some future hour.
It's in her embrace I find that extra power.
Although this world may be a total mess,
The truth is everything will turn out fine.
Our relationship has stood the test of time.


We walk the streets together, hand in hand
And guide ourselves from night to night.
Her warm coat blocks the eyes of foes around.
I trust her to protect me from the evil town;
The dying world; I tell you, man to man,
Her darkness is the only path to light.

Inspired by Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night."
Thanks Bob!

Passengers (A Prose Poem)

The trip was long and difficult, covering eons of time from light years away in outer space, first on the tailgating rubble of a comet, then on several asteroids, eventually arriving on earth in the souvenir glove compartment of the space shuttle.

The passengers were small, no larger than the palm of your hand, looking like a piece of dried snake skin, the footprints of trees on the earth, or like two tardy leaves, eyes tightly shut, holding hands as they drift down during a snow storm; but in fact they were intergalactic space travelers from a distant galaxy, a nameless solar system, a ghost planet where every object, living or dead, is disguised as something else.

This poem was written on February 25, 1999 in response to a assignment from a prose poem writing class in which the instructor, Diane Raptosh, asked the students to write a poem about one of several items on the table, one of which was a case with four mounted deadleaf butterflies whose wings look exactly like dead tree leaves.

Psalm of David (a cento villanelle from Psalms 31)

In you, O Lord, do I put my trust,
Come now and bow down thy ear to me;
Will you deliver me in your righteousness?

Free me from the trap that is set for me,
I know you can deliver me speedily,
In you, O Lord, do I put my trust.

You have known my soul in adversity,
Come now and listen to my plea;
Will you deliver me in your righteousness?

Don't shut me up in the hand of the enemy,
My strength fades because of my iniquity,
In you, O Lord, do I put my trust.

Let lying lips be silent, for they speak proudly;
Let shameful behavior stay far from me;
Will you deliver me in your righteousness?

Thy great goodness is laid up for those who fear thee;
You will make your face to shine upon me;
In you, O Lord, do I put my trust,
You will deliver me in your righteousness.

Looking at Workplace Psychological Abuse (Part One)

One of the topics I will be addressing on this blog are the experiences I had at my former employer, Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, where I worked for 30 years before being forced to retire prematurely in 2006 as a result of being seriously injured on the job by a psychologically abusive co-worker, and also by negligent, unresponsive, and abusive management. The co-worker's behavior regularly jeopardized patient care. She was reported to management many times, but nothing was ever successfully done to address her destructive behavior which went on for more than two and a half years. I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of having to work in the hostile and toxic environment she intentionally created. I reported the PTSD to management at least 25 times over a period of approximately two years without ever receiving a response addressing the injury. I was threatened with termination by one manager for reporting the PTSD injury. I was also ordered by three managers, including a vice-president to not talk about the injury to my co-workers in the department, even though they were vulnerable to the same abuse and injury. The department manager told me that my injuries were "petty" even though PTSD is a potentially disabling injury that is treatable, but not curable. Like AIDS, once you have PTSD, you always have it.

I was a target and victim of "workplace psychological abuse," also know as "bullying/mobbing," and sometimes as "scapegoating." It's a common problem in this country and is getting more and more attention, but not at St. Alphonsus, where management not only ignores it when someone is the target of bullying/mobbing, (even after their own counseling staff diagnoses it and determines that it occurred on their campus), but actually participates in the abuse and adds to the injury. Unlike some more advanced countries where psychological abuse is included in laws addressing sexual and physical abuse, and those convicted of it face jail time, the US has no federal legislation against psychological abuse. If you want to know more about workplace psychological abuse I recommend the article by Noa Davenport, entitled "When Conflict in the Workplace Escalates to Emotional Abuse," which can be found at www.mediate.com/articles/davenport.cfm# or at www.mediate.com/pfriendly.cfm?id=1063.

Like sexual and physical violence, psychological violence has an enormously harmful impact on the person who is the target of this kind of violence. Those inflicted with psychological violence are changed forever. That's what violence, any kind of violence, does. It severs the target from the person he used to be. From then on that person has to reconstruct his life from a different place, or from a different foundation. It's a process that takes time and I'm only beginning to understand all the implications of what it means for me to have been the target of chronic violence at St. Alphonsus for over two years, but I believe I'm getting off to a new, strong, and promising beginning. At the age of nearly 60 I shouldn't have to go through this traumatic experience in my life, but then no one at any age should be subjected to any kind of violence. Unfortunately Saint Alphonsus has a long-standing reputation for mistreating their employees. I know of others who had to leave and like myself, needed years of therapy and medication to recover from the harmful treatment they received at Saint Alphonsus, treatment that was not accidental, but deliberate; treatment that, in my experience, may have started from an abusive co-worker, but really has its foundation in dysfunctional management.

The taproot of this problem is in senior management. When lower level managers refuse to address behavior that clearly jeopardizes patient care and causes injury to employees, and when the same managers behave in a dishonest, unethical, and injury-causing manner toward employees (as they did to me) it's because they have permission from senior management to misbehave like that. Judith Wyatt and Chauncey Hare in their excellent book, Work Abuse: How to Recognize and Survive it, write: "If managers misuse the power that accompanies their organizational role, the misuse is rarely questioned or confronted by higher authorities in the organization. In fact misuse is presumed, and the rights of lower or middle management to misuse role power against employees is often protected by top management." I believe that many employees at Saint Alphonsus have been mistreated and even injured by abusive behavior from either co-workers, or by negligent and abusive behavior from management.

My obligation as a responsible citizen and health care professional, is to (as I have been doing since leaving Saint Alphonsus), publicize the problem and address what happened to me. This is a community-endangering problem. I have been and will continue to address this problem in a peaceful civilized manner. Publicizing this experience needs to be done to raise awareness so people can take steps to protect themselves since what I experienced at Saint Alphonsus, from January, 2004, represents a serious public health menace that jeopardizes the health and safety of everyone in this region.

Stay tuned for more information. I will be addressing different aspects of this horror story in the future. Any questions? My e-mail address is leonardnolt@aol.com. Be sure to identify yourself.

Note: I can provide written documentation of the above reports, including but not limited to
--the diagnosis of PTSD from a St. Alphonsus counselor.
--the threat of termination from a manager for reporting to him the PTSD, a potentially
disabling on-the-job injury that I was required by medical center policy to report.
--the claim that my injuries were "petty" from the department manager.
--written orders from a vice-president to not talk about the abuse and the PTSD to other
department members.

Silence

"Silence does not mean consent. Silence means death. When we have something to say and we are afraid to speak, or forbidden to speak, we feel as though we've been walled into a closet... Here in America we are finding pressure to silence us coming from all three sources (government, market, public hysteria)." from Writing in An Age of Silence, by Sara Paretsky, Page 113.

To the Paretsky quote I would like to add that pressure to silence us also comes from employers, corporations, family, co-workers, churches, attorneys, politicians, etc. People are frequently being pressured to stay quiet about anything in their experience that might have been injurious, illegal, inappropriate, immoral, unethical, abusive, unjust, or just uncomfortable. Anytime someone is urged to "just move on," "forget it," "drop it, " or "let it go," they are being asked to go into denial and ignore something that needs to be addressed. The best possible response is to ignore the advice being given and continue speaking out on the issue. Speaking out could cost them their jobs, friends, and family, but not speaking out will cost them their integrity, self-respect, peace of mind, and possibly even their health. Those who urge victims of injustice, abuse, or other mistreatment to "just move on," may have good intentions, but there are similarities between pediphiles and child molesters who order their victims to not talk about the abuse so they can continue to abuse, and managers or supervisors who impose conditions of confidentiality on employees in an attempt to cover up unjust or injurious behavior.

There is value in researching all the possible options for dealing with the issue, considering the possible consequences of any action, and using the imagination and creativity in selecting new and original ways of addressing the problem. Timing and patience should also be taken into consideration. But there is no respectable or responsible way of not dealing with the unresolved issues of the past. We cannot move into the future properly prepared to care for it, if we are simultaneously neglecting the past.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter."
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"He who accepts evil without protesting against it, is really cooperating with it."
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1958; from CitizenLink.com, March 17, 2008

"True forgiveness deals with the past, all of the past, to make the future possible," Desmond Tutu; South African Archbishop, from the book, Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, by Kraybill, Nolt, and Weaver-Zercher