Educational Media Reviews Online

The Healing Years and Boys and Men Healing explore two kinds of sexual abuse which remain a greater taboo even than abuse of young girls and women by non-related perpetrators: incest, and the sexual abuse of young boys and men. These sensitive portraits document the numerous individual and societal harms caused by such abuse. The Healing Years investigates the effects of incest on three women. Boys and Men Healing also focuses on three abuse survivors—men who were sexually assaulted as children. Both productions intersperse interview segments where victims from varying social strata and ethnic backgrounds disclose their stories with testimonials and facts concerning the long-term effects of abuse. Footage of survivors attending support groups illustrate the various ways survivors cope with their past.

The Healing Years’ goal is to encourage survivors to speak out about their experiences, and in doing so, to reclaim their identity. By tracing the subjects’ recovery processes, the filmmaker presents three distinct journeys from despair and invisibility to hope and self-recognition. Best known is a former Miss America, activist Marilyn Van Derbur, who was raped by her well-regarded father and has become an advocate for victim’s rights. Also profiled is a leader of a San Francisco church who uses her troubled past to relate to inner-city women struggling with addiction (and who are often abuse survivors as well), and an elderly woman who witnessed the damage done by three generations of incest in her family. Viewers will also gain an understanding of the many ways the trauma of incest can manifest over time. One victim speaks of a sudden onset of physical and psychiatric problems decades after her last instance of abuse. Trust issues given the victims’ familial relationships to their perpetrators further complicate and confuse the recovery process; viewers are given a sense of the intensely complex and conflicting emotions these women face.

Boys and Men Healing also focuses on the importance of self-validation and the widespread effects of abuse. Tendencies toward anger and thoughts of revenge or suicide pose particular problems for the men, making intimacy a common challenge. One young African-American man speaks of his failed relationships, while also describing the effects of his family’s different reactions to his abuse. He is abandoned by his father who failed to come to terms with his son’s vulnerability and is later saved by a supportive grandmother. The role of family members in mitigating or exacerbating damage levied by abuse is made clear. Also of particular focus in this production are the laws regarding statute of limitations, which often restrict the legal actions an adult survivor can take. One man, a victim of a pedophile priest, campaigns tirelessly to change these laws.

While both films present a sensitive and three-dimensional portrait of the victims, Boys and Men Healing goes a step further in examining the difficult link between victimhood and perpetration, as well as exploring how allies can best serve troubled abuse survivors. One of the victims profiled has become a forensic psychologist specializing in the impact of sexual abuse on men, and is often called upon by attorneys representing men charged with murder to evaluate defendants who have suffered abuse. The causal link between childhood abuse and violent tendencies is discussed in the context of a particular offender, once a victim of horrific abuse. The man has been sentenced to death for his crimes, and the psychologist visits him to say goodbye. This interchange personalizes the statistics offered elsewhere in the program regarding the increased likelihood of abuse victims to exhibit destructive behaviors. It highlights the extreme impact of sustained abuse without excusing the victim’s destructive actions.

A brief coda at the end of Boys and Men Healing suggests how friends and service providers can better provide for and reach out to victims: by providing safe places where the abused can open up and tell their stories, facilitating proactive outreach, and teaching parents and other responsible adults how to recognize and respond to pleas for help. A listing of current resources scrolls over the program’s end credits. These additions make Boys and Men Healing the stronger of the two programs, however they each fill a unique and underrepresented niche.