Procession (2021)

This is an incredibly powerful documentary around the subject of sexual abuse in the Catholic church. Even if you feel like you know what there is to know about that, the window into the long term effects on the children who were abused is very compellingly demonstrated in a way that we can all identify with and understand, and all the more damning of the church for covering it up and allowing it to continue. The filmmaker decided to make this film after witnessing a televised 2018 press conference in which three middle-aged Kansas City-area survivors of sexual abuse by priests stated their intention to name 230 priests in the area who had participated in an organized child sex trafficking ring operating within the Catholic Church, which had a long record (not just in Kansas City) of enabling, ignoring, or barely disciplining abusers on their payroll. He contacted the men's lawyer, Rebecca Randles, and hooked them up with Monica Phinne, a "drama therapist" who teaches trauma survivors how to use theater to transform feelings of victimization into empowerment. The movie is a record of the process each went through to confront their traumas, and film re-enactments of them.