'Procession' A Review

Procession is a documentary that follows six survivors of abuse by Catholic clergy as they collaborate with the director Robert Greene as well as a drama therapist in order to create scenes, which they then produce and film, depicting/influenced by their trauma(ranging from literal to metaphorical) in their on going search for peace.

Through talking head interviews, archival footage, but mostly simple fly-on-the-wall documentation of the filmmaking process the stories, personalities, and truth of the six collaborators is revealed. In Greenes typical style(Actress, Kate Plays Christine) the film is a melding of both a classic documentary approach as well as a highly theatrical/magical realism type of staging that harmonizes beautifully, tragically here and is a perfectly imperfect mechanism for the six men to attempt to process their past.

The production itself is crisp and fluid and much of the nuts-and-bolts of the process are depicted- location scouting, scene construction etc. which the six men actively participate in. The abusers, although named, are not depicted and little to no time is spent on them. And although the six men share parts of their stories the actual particulars of the abuse are not depicted or particularly discussed. What is the overarching focus is compassion, the fellowship and strength these men share as survivors, how they feel, how they struggle to have their stories heard, their attempts to elicit some kind of satisfactory response from the Catholic church hierarchy, how they cope, how they(to greater or lesser degrees) have moved through and beyond.

Its incredibly powerful and the conceit of the documentary fundamentally gives power back to the six survivors. They struggle, they discuss, they disagree, they make mistakes, they triumph, and although it is clear Greene, as an established director, facilitates much of the productions minutia the men themselves are the ones that make the decisions. And this is what separates Procession from a more conventional documentary where someone simply and directly relays an individuals story. It is not an investigation of the facts of abuse, that is taken for granted, what it depicts is the lives of the people that abuse effected and how they are actively working to transcend it. 

Tough but not brutal. Intimate without exploitation. Perhaps sad but the courage, strength, and emotion displayed is ultimately divine.

Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don't Miss It.