Now and then, there is a movie that comes along to remind you that the face of pain does not look the same on everyone, and behind the pain is a private box of dreams and hope and goodness ... especially, in a young person. PRECIOUS is such a movie. It reminds me that every life that I have an opportunity to touch is precious beyond my human ability to understand it. I just have to give every life my tender loving care because there's much more I do not understand about how much it means to God.
This movie is definitely not for the faint-hearted: scenes of violence, rape, the mental, emotional and physical violation of a dependent, pain that numbs one into silence, and that these are the ongoing daily realities of some people make it heart-wrenching and cause your guts to turn inside. I was shaken, to say the least.
Write what you feel. write what you are going through. Everything that comes to mind. Precious' literacy teacher, Ms Blu Rain, urged the class of about 10 illiterate girls daily. They wrote through their tears and fears. They were not to give up on writing and reading but go beyond where the pain and limitations in their lives would have them stuck. Empowerment through literacy is a choice and the only light at the end of the dark tunnels of their lives.
I chose this movie to open up myself to see social dysfunctions and got more than I bargained for. This movie will open your eyes to not only familial dysfuctions and how they destroy lives, but also to yourself as a person - vulnerable to be hurt - and to the degenerating effects of abuse to one's thoughts, choices and emotions. It evokes your compassion for another that transcends skin colour and socio-economic background, cautions you that human dysfunction, survival and hope is universal, and reminds you (against the glimpses of the church and the whiff of gospel singing in the movie) that God's love releases the human soul in a way nothing else can.
Go see it ... prepared.