Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

I've been doing well with docs this year. The trend continued Sunday afternoon with Alex Gibney's "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the house of God".

The film's primary focus in on St. John's School for the Deaf in Wisconsin and a long history of sexual abuse of numerous boys at the school by a priest named Father Lawrence Murphy.

When three of the boys attempt to have Murphy removed from working with young children, it starts a chain of events that leads into the highest reaches of the Vatican. What starts as a story about the abuse of children becomes an expose of the lengths to which a monolithic organization like the Catholic Church will go to protect itself. And, in the end, it goes back to the men who suffered at the hands of Murphy and are still dealing with it today (Murphy died in '98, so his voice is truly silent).

Their testimony in the film is delivered using both signing and through voice-overs using people like Ethan Hawke and Chris Cooper. Even without the voice-overs, their emotional pain and anger comes through loud and clear.

The film is a devastating portrayal of personal and institutional abuse. After the screening, the three men participated in the Q&A, a moving experience on its own.

Every year at TIFF, there are one or two films that demand space for quiet reflection after the screening. "Mea Maxima Culpa" was one of those films.

Although this is an HBO production, I suspect that this will be a doc that will receive a big promotional push in order to get it on the Oscar list for next year.
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