We’re still a few weeks away from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’s announcement of those documentaries shortlisted for nomination in the feature-length category. Judging from the quality of films already screened at festivals and in qualifying theatrical runs, competition will be fierce and several worthy contenders necessarily won’t make the cut.
Assuming that the preliminary panel includes no representative of the Kazakhstan government –which has paid for full-page newspaper ads condemning the antics of a fake reporter, played by Sacha Baron Cohen — it isn’t likely AMPAS will be left red-faced by the choice of “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” Stranger things have happened, of course, but not lately.
Hearing that “An Inconvient Truth” appears to have a lock on a nomination, if not the whole enchilada, won’t please liberal-bashing Republicans and right-wing talk-show hosts, parent-teachers of the home-schooled Evangelicals in “Jesus Camp,” and other doubters of global warming. The prospect of watching Al Gore stroll the Red Carpet on February 25 could kill ratings in those red-tinged states not as susceptible to melting icecaps as California, New York or the Antarctic home of the stars of “March of the Penguins.”
It might be interesting, as well, to see how MPAA chairman Dan Glickman would react to “This Film Is Not Rated” getting the nod.
No candidate for shortlisting may be more immediately topical, though, than Amy Berg’s “Deliver Us From Evil.” As the investigation of the current Capitol Hill sex scandal progresses, parallels between coverups of the activities of former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley’s and those of disgraced ex-priest Oliver O’Grady are becoming ever more inescapable.
Just as several of the most powerful Republicans in Washington have been forced to testify on what they knew, when, and what they did about Foley’s advances to pages, Berg’s documentary indicts Catholic Church hierarchy for ignoring horrific crimes perpetrated by O’Grady on the children of his parishioners. Their decision to shuffle the Irish-born priest to other churches in the Northern California archdiocese, instead of forcing him to quit or undergo treatment, ensured dozens more victims.
O’Grady took advantage of the naivite of parents who couldn’t imagine such a betrayal of trust could take place under their noses, nor were they likely to buy reports of molestation from their own kids. In the ’70s, pedophilia was considered to be a crime not committed by priest, but squirrelly little guys who hid in bushes and lured their victims with candy. That misconception would be forever shattered by the confirmed reports of pedophilia — and subsequent coverups by Bernard Cardinal Law –among priests in the Boston archdiocese in the ’80s and ’90s.
O’Grady, now living in Ireland, allowed Berg to interview him about his crimes and the ineffectual moves by his superiors to control his predilictions and protect parishioners. O’Grady served time in prison here, but, as Berg’s cameras attest, he is now free to roam the streets of Dublin in alarmingly close proximity to children and unsuspecting parents.
By coincidence, on Thursday, a priest who Foley reportedly accused of molestation almost four decades ago admitted he fondled the six-term congressman as a teen. Like O’Grady, his admission of guilt was less an apology than a disassociative refusal to deal with reality.
“Once maybe I touched him or so, but didn’t, it wasn’t — because it’s not something you call, I mean, rape or penetration or anything like that you know. We were just fondling,” Father Anthony Mercieca, 69, said in a phone interview with CNN affiliate WPTV from his home on the Maltese island of Gozo in the Mediterranean.
“He seemed to like it, you know? So it was sort of more like a spontaneous thing,” Mercieca told WPTV, a West Palm Beach station.
“See abuse, it’s a bad word, you know, because abuse, you abuse someone against his will. But it involved just spontaneousness, you know?
“Anyway, he will overcome it, with a psychiatrist you know. Mark is a very intelligent man.”
Guess, not.
Both priests were given permission to visit the homes of their victims, occasionally stay overnight and travel with the children as their guardian. Unlike O’Grady, who also was molested as a child, Mercieca has outlasted the statutes of limitations on such crimes and is still a priest.
The gravity of the situation documented in “Deliver Us From Evil” also is driven home in interviews with “survivors” and their parents, and through the good work of canon lawyer and victims’ advocate Father Tom Doyle. Not surprisingly, perhaps, Church hierarchy avoided contact with the filmmakers and were represented solely in video-taped legal depositions of Cardinal Roger Mahoney (now, Archbishop of Los Angeles) and other of Father Ollie’s former superiors in the Fresno area.
Berg also implicates newly installed Pope Benedict, who, before he took office, presided over high-level Vatican committees looking into priestly abuse. The committee essentially washed its hands of the whole sordid mess, not only prompting lawsuits from victims but also President George W. Bush’s decision to grant him immunity from prosecution here.
Last week, photos of Bush showing his support for House Speaker Dennis Hastert — accused of covering up knowledge of Foley’s behavior — were splashed across the front pages of newspaper across the U.S. Having just seen “Deliver Us From Evil,” it was impossible not to fear for the safety of children entrusted to adults who have more compassion for the predator than its prey.
51 Birch Street
At first glance, Doug Block’s “51 Birch Street” feels very much like one of those projects assigned high school seniors with aspirations of going to film school in the big city. You know, go interview mom and dad, and try to unearth some deep, dark secret or pearl of accumulated wisdom.
And, indeed, Block’s primary intention was merely to do a family history, which could be passed along to future generations for reference or rekindle memories of childhood bliss. On the surface, the Blocks seemed typical of tens of thousands of other families in and beyond Port Washington, N.Y. Mom and dad had their issues but both seemed content to play out the string together.
The unexpected death of Mina Block, early in the production, opened up a Pandora’s Box of options and misgivings. There was no way, for instance, that Block could have anticipated his 83-year-old father, Mike, would suddenly decide to marry Kitty, a woman he had met and worked with as a young man. Nor, could he predict that his father’s glum personality would be transformed almost overnight into one of romantic bliss.
Compounding Block and his siblings’ consternation was Mike and Kitty’s decision to sell the house at 51 Birch Street and move to Florida. All of sudden, the filmmaker had a story worth sharing … a horror story.
Like B lock, most viewers will consider Mike to be a cad, or, worse, a man who cheated on his wife throughout the entirety of their 54-year marriage without remorse. It isn’t until the son discovers a treasure trove of diaries, poems and drawings hidden by Mina, as if in anticipation of someone eventually finding them, that all of our preconceptions are upended.
The documents describe a woman very different than one Block knew primarily as a mother often harried, but always loving. Here was Mina stripped of camouflage and the expectations of her children. She was troubled by her husband’s inattention sexually and otherwise; distressed by the limitations imposed on women throughout most of the 20th Century; and lonely enough to seek the compassion of her psychiatrist and other men. As confirmed by Mina’s best friend, here also was a woman who, along with her husband, experimented with marijuana and flirted, at least, with the idea of enlisting in the sexual revolution of ’60s.
Who was this woman? Why did Mina elect to remain married to a man she so clearly disliked? Was she the victim or the perpetrator? Were her theories about Mike’s inattention accurate?
As these questions are raised and addressed by Block, his siblings and their reluctant father, viewers will scour memories of their own family to look for clues and answers to deep-seeded anxieties. Some may even be shaken to the core of their beliefs, and will begin a similar journey into the past.
Some critics have compared “51 Birch Street” to “Capturing the Friedmans,” but that’s a stretch. Mostly, they share a style that leans heavily on family photo albums and home movies; a Long Island setting; and similar ethnic backgrounds for the key players. The Blocks’ secrets are unnerving, but no where as profoundly creepy as those of the Friedmans. Both are, however, compelling in their patient explorations of family dynamics.
Come November, I wouldn’t be surprised to find both “51 Birch Street” and “Deliver Us From Evil” on the academy’s shortlist of potential nominees.

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