This film is really exceptional and powerful, tackling the difficult topics of modern day journalism and the Catholic Church cover-up/protection of pedophiles wearing collars (priests) in Boston. It's just not the type of film that is a blockbuster and won't receive all the attention it deserves due to the challenging subject matter.
It is my hope that "Spotlight" will at least win one of the five other awards it's nominated for, so that the film will get more publicity and, hopefully, more screenings, and be viewed by more folks. More people need to see the suffering that comes from silence and the abuse of power, especially by the hypocrites hiding under their cloaks of "holiness." The hope, of course, is that the more that is known, the less likely it will be allowed to happen again.
A really horrible thing about the "Spotlight" case is that it wasn't an isolated incident. It happened in multiple locations across the U.S. and the World. Clearly; the corrupt Catholic Church repeatedly
failed to put the needs of the children in its flock above those of the perpetrators.
This hits closed to home because I spent nearly five years of my life working on a play titled "Preying Hands," which tells the story of the Deaf teens (and later men) who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a beloved priest at the St. John's School for the Deaf in Wisconsin.(It's not right to tarnish the entire state but I can't stop thinking that this priest and native son really put the "con" and "sin" in Wisconsin.)
And again, this horror of clerical abusing of people with disabilities wasn't an isolated incident. The same thing happened, perhaps even worse, to Deaf students in Quebec at about the same time.
If you can't see "Spotlight" at your local cinema, be sure to access it from another source as soon as you can. It' is well worth the time and effort.
