Anita....the Documentary

This afternoon I decided I'd go see the documentary by Frieda Mock at Seattle's Sundance theater. It was an excellent decision because Anita Hill remains one of my heroes. The film takes you back in time to the congressional hearings when testimony about incidences of sexual harassment were told by Anita Hill. The film goes back and forth between today and then. We see Anita Hill now and listen to all the struggles she had to go through after testifying...she was asked to do so by the committee and then they treated her as thought it was she who was on trial. She never once wavered in her testimony, despite the outrageous claims made by some of those senators who questioned her as to motive for coming forth. She even passed an independent lie detector test when asked too. The congressional hearing was held by all white male senators who NEVER allowed any of the other witnesses to testify...ones all supporting Anita and with charges of their own having been sexually harassed by Clarence Thomas. And shame on Biden for closing down the hearing without listen to more truths...those which supported Anita Hill and her testimony. It was a sham and to this day disgusts me that Clarence Thomas was confirmed. He himself played the race card trying to make it an issue of race instead of sexual harassment. One of the most powerful images in the movie was Anita Hill's mother telling her that "you know who you are" and to speak only to the truth...which she did and bravely so. It's never easy to speak out publicly against Power...but the only way to do so is to speak the truth and Anita did.

Frieda Mock is standing next to Anita Hill in the image on the right in this collage which is composed from some online images.

Needless to say...I was moved and highly recommend seeing this to anyone who gets the chance. It did refresh my memory as I did watch those hearings some 23 years ago and my outrage at the time was fully justified. We still have a long way to go in dealing with this important issue---sexual harassment...but at least it's out there and not as easily shut down anymore!