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| Dennis Paul of React to Film, MTV News' Josh Horowitz and director Jason Cohen with Matt Boger at the Paley Center For Media discussion on Facing Fear. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
Ten days before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on this Sunday, March 2, announces this year's Oscars, the Paley Center For Media in New York held a screening and discussion moderated by Josh Horowitz from MTV News of Jason Cohen's Best Documentary Short nominee Facing Fear. The evening was presented by React to Film, GLAAD, the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) and The Fetzer Institute.
React to Film co-founder Dennis Paul spoke before the screening - "Our mission is to engage the young people of America on important social issues of today. Ultimately the whole point of the high school and the college program is to expose them to those issues that they haven't probably thought about and engage them in a conversation with their peers and professors. It inspires them to take some positive action, change something in their own life and the life of people around them. We're so honored to be here tonight. Jason, in his hands, Facing Fear manages to tackle such complex issues - fear, hate, intolerance, violence, injustice - but it does it in our opinion with such deftness and subtlety. For young people today to get over their biases, the first step, we think is to understand, the person, the other, that you're looking at."
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| Facing Fear director Jason Cohen: "bullying, hate, homophobia are unfortunately obviously all still very relevant today." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
Facing Fear tells the story of an attack on a gay teenage boy in an alley in Hollywood by a group of skinheads in the early Eighties. 25 years later, Matt Boger, who was left for dead on the street, by chance, encounters Tim Zaal, one of the members of the neo-Nazi gang that beat him up so severely that night. At the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles where Matt was now working, the two men eventually embark on presenting workshops that tackle questions of forgiveness and the possibility of change.
Jason Cohen: This was done in conjunction with Fetzer Institute. We were doing a much larger project for Fetzer. A lot of work they are doing around the world. Matthew and Tim's was one of the first projects I read about that they were working on. I instantly was drawn to it. There was something to explore there in this process of forgiveness. All the issues that come up in the film - bullying, hate, homophobia - are unfortunately obviously all still very relevant today. I knew that that was something audiences would attach to as well. I felt there was a lot there that people could relate to.
The film has interviews with Boger and Zaal and the structure intertwines their stories.
JC: We knew we were making a short pretty much when we started. We kind of felt like it was equally their story. Part of the film is to show that the forgiveness process is not one-sided. It's not just the victim forgiving the perpetrator. We wanted a balance.
Matt Boger, who was present in the front row at the screening, spoke about trusting Cohen to tell the story.
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| Facing Fear poster |
Matt Boger: Because I grew up on the street. I can read people. I just let them talk and then I can tell you if they're playing a game. It's just a survival mechanism. There's two points that show how much I trusted him. One is about selling my body. I never, ever talked about it because I was ashamed of it. The other part is about my mom. Those two moments right there… His nomination is a gift for Tim and [me] that our voices will now be heard on a stage that is much larger than what we could ever have imagined. And unfortunately our story is still relevant.
The central question of the film and during the discussion after the screening was about forgiveness.
MB: Tim never asked for forgiveness. He apologised…The journey of forgiveness was one I knew he was not going to be involved in it. Two, It had nothing to do with him. Three, I had seen a different person than the one I had seen in the alley that night. I don't have the handbook for forgiveness. It is a very personal journey. It is not for everyone. The courage and bravery it takes for Tim to stand next to me and go back to that night every time. I give him a huge amount of credit. He as the perpetrator was giving me the information [about that night].
JC: The goal of the film was to tell this story as objectively as possible. Obviously as filmmakers, there's always going to be subjectivity. Ideally, we were trying to tell the story and not comment on whether it was the right or wrong thing to do. As I said, I don't know if I could do the same. As part of this project I shot a film in Uganda about post-war reconciliation and forgiveness in Northern Uganda. That involves people forgiving those who had raped and murdered their neighbors and things like that. I was certainly questioning if I could do the same… Matt works at the Museum of Tolerance. Obviously it was done in conjunction with them. The Museum of Tolerance essentially started as a Holocaust Museum. There's Holocaust survivors walking around the museum every day. And there's no way that Matt or I would go up and tell a Holocaust survivor that they need to look at everything and forgive what happened. It's so varied and based on your own individual experience. We've had plenty of people say, I don't buy it.
Matt spoke about going back to the scene of the crime.
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| Matt Boger on being the subject of Facing Fear: "I don't have the handbook for forgiveness. It is a very personal journey." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
MB: The news media - that's all they would do. They all thought they had a great new idea. Tim and I would laugh about it because we made them believe that they were the first… Now on my way to work in the morning I drive by the park and on my way home I drive by the alley. It's not a way to torture myself, it's just the fastest way to work.
JC: We all drove by the location to go to the premiere that night [at the Outfest in Los Angeles]. Pretty emotional… When we started this project it was one of five films we made. The other pieces are all shorts and they make one feature length film. When you make a short, to be honest, it's sometimes tougher than making a feature. You are figuring out what stays and what goes, what advances the story and what doesn't.
MB: Tim's second wife is Jewish and his best friend is gay now.
JC: Tim was 17 when this attack happened. He got into that lifestyle when he was a kid. You know, we all make mistakes. Unfortunately his were a little bit bigger and he ended up on that bad cycle. But he got ahold of it and got exposed to different kind of people. He still has a lot of guilt. Again, making a short we tried to highlight, we focused on that one moment but [the transformation] took years really.
MB: What's so great about Jason's film is that it creates a conversation. When you make a short there are lots of unanswered questions. Conversation, honest conversation, is where change happens… I was a hair colorist in Beverly Hills. Actually, I used to work the red carpet with my clients. Now I get to walk it… I hope I'll run into a couple of them. What happened was, seriously, I have got fed up at the point of Matthew Shepard's murder. You have Teena Brandon, these were sensationalised stories but how many have something happen to them without such huge news stories? I could continue to do nothing and be silent or I could find a way to use my voice. The only thing I could think of was to go and volunteer my time. Six months into it, I gave up all my clients to another hair colorist and dedicated my life to this.
