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CHICAGO CINEMA FORUM and CHICAGO FILMMAKERS present:
MEADOWLARK
A Documentary Self-Portrait by Taylor Greeson
(2007, 77 min, Digibeta)
> > Friday, February 29 < <
Chicago Filmmakers
5243 N. Clark / www.chicagofilmmakers.org
Doors at 7pm /
Films begin at 8pm
Filmmaker Taylor Greeson will be on-hand
after the screening for a Q&A.
Screening accompanied by new work from Chicago artists:
headquarters by Celeste Neuhaus, and
What's Under Your Bed? by Karen Tisel
$8 general / $7 Student / $4 Chi Filmmakers Members - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Chicago Cinema Forum and Chicago Filmmakers present MEADOWLARK (2007, 77 min, Digibeta) the first feature by recent CAL Arts grad, Taylor Greeson at 8pm on Friday, February 29 at Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark).
In the summer of 1993, when he was twelve years old, Greeson was ordained with the priesthood in the Mormon faith, he lost his virginity to an older man, and suffered the murder of his old brother, Charlie. MEADOWLARK is Greeson's intimate excavation of these events via memory and landscape. The film resists every urge toward sensationalism, choosing instead to confront this abrupt coming-of-age--and the people responsible for it--with remarkable compassion. Greeson paints a very human picture of characters it would be easy to vilify.
MEADOWLARK simultaneously invokes and diminishes the distance between Taylor and his past. While the camera embeds itself in the majestic landscapes and small buildings of Billings, Montana, Taylor's transcendent tone suggests a comfortable safety that has come from his apparent removal. The film begins with a montage of family photographs that introduces Greeson's cast of characters. Similar montages appear throughout the film; this strategy, combined with the 16mm production format, would seemingly lend the film an air of nostalgia. However, MEADOWLARK rarely indulges a sense of longing for the past, choosing to emphasize the inevitability of change and the necessity on confronting old ghosts with thoughtfulness and empathy.
In a series of episodic sequences, Greeson revisits the places and people of his childhood and investigates the ways they have changed. In the house where his brother was stabbed, the new residents welcome Greeson into their home and relate the supernatural ways in which his brother's death has haunted them. In another sequence, Greeson visits his mother and sister, who have relocated to New Mexico. Traces of the past become apparent as the camera lingers on the mundane and oddly fascinating daily activities in their trailer home, and Greeson builds a complex tension bewteen image and sound and past and present.
Greeson speaks with lawyers, searches through physical evidence collected at the crime scene, and sifts through newspaper articles and legal documents about the homicide. Ultimately, this search leads him to Shelby, MT, where his brother's killer is incarcerated. Greeson films his own participation in the Victim-Offender Dialogue (VOD) Program, a months-long program designed to bring victims and offenders together to talk about the violent events of the past and take steps toward healing. The resulting dialogue is candid, honest, and heart-wrenching, inviting viewers to question fundamental notions of justice and forgiveness.
MEADOWLARK displays a welcome tone of transcendence often missing in the age of reality TV. Taylor's compassion and calm is nearly unflappable, subverting audience expectations. There is no self-righteous accusation or big emotional showdown. Just as thankfully absent is a cool, sarcastic indifference or self-indulgent sadness. There is only the quiet, patient work of an inspired confrontation of a harrowing past, and an imperfect but genuine attempt at achieving forgiveness.
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