Twist of Faith

This is probably one of the hardest documentaries I've ever watched, it really does hit you like a punch in the face from the outset. I can honestly say this film had me deep in thought, uneasy, laughing and crying, and that's what a movie should do. Unfortunately this subject matter shouldn't even exist for it to be brought to people to understand through film.

This is an intimate journey alongside the family and friends of a man who has been subject to years of sexual abuse by the locally trusted Catholic Priest. It shows his attempts to come to terms with what has happened and how it affects him in later years, and not just him but his wife, his children, his family and friends, and even the others who have been abused in the past. It's one of the most powerful movies I've seen in recent years.

I've noticed something different in this documentary that doesn't seem to carry with others I've seen to date, and that's in its determination to keep track of the focus of the story, Tony Comes, and yet it manages extremely well to show the effect to so many around him. The stories, attitude and confusion of so many other people are brought clearly into the film without taking away from his story, or dropping the focus from the pain and torment that is going through his life. It does manage to present a startling picture of how so many are affected by the sexual abuse of a person, and how the memory follows someone through their life all the while eating away at them at every single moment and through every single thought.

It doesn't preach, or seem to angle towards illiciting an effect from the audience for some social change or promotion of anger against the Church. What it does do, clear and simply, is show the Comes family story.

The movie is superbly edited. To imagine that the makers had so much footage and edited it down to a manageable amount that could keep Comes story focused and strong despite breaking off to tell the tales of his friends and family, and still retain the close feeling of intimacy of the whole piece, is remarkable work.

So many times documentary films can become something else, lose sight of what they were meant to be about or just dilute their message with cinema, whereas this film has exploited the medium to the utmost. It has successfully presented Comes story in such a way as to grab the audience and ask them why this has been allowed to happen, taking you to the window of these peoples lives and letting you look inside to see what harm has come to these real people.

For me, this is what this movie is about. It takes you into the heart of the Comes family and forces you to face things that you would not normally want to see. You don't want to know that people are abused, especially by those that some hold so sacred, and you don't want to see the pain and suffering that travels throughout the families affected.

During the scenes in Comes truck or at his home, when the camera was simply with him, I would forget that I was and really feel as though I was sitting in that cab with him. By the end I held a sense of knowing Comes and his Wife, not in the sense of a friend, but in that they are real genuine people, and their warmth and compassion came through so easily on screen, something I found incredibly emotional to watch at times.

There are a few truly hard scenes, of which I won't go into. Yes, it is painful, very upsetting and it will make you cry, but there is a lot of good to be had out of this film.

For one there is the amazing quality of faith found in humans. For me this was the hardest part, how Tony could contemplate anything to do with the Church after these events is beyond me, I even shouted at the screen for him to "wise up"! Not being a believer of Church or any organised religions, I found this particularly hard, but I saw the positive affects on the family and the strength it gave them. This was something unique and quite amazing.

Another moment, and something that the film showed me about myself, was when Tony's young daughter has gone to bed and he walks in to settle with her and hold her for comfort. My thoughts were uncomfortable and nervous, and yet this was a moment like any other between a Father and Daughter. A particularly powerful moment for me that demonstrates what Tony himself says when he talks about when and how often the memories of the past affect him.

Above all, it showed that you should not keep quiet about events in the past, and you shouldn't stand by when others commit crimes against people and cover them up for anyones sake. If this film tells us anything, it's that the act of silence in itself is a crime and that those who knew the priest was responsible should have stood up, taken responsibility and acted. Instead the burden was left with this poor young boy who has grown to be a strong but troubled man. Regardless of this movie, I applaud him and his family for where they are today, and I wish them all the peace in the world.

I urge you to watch this documentary. It's one of the most powerful I've seen, and it tells an often sad and painful tale that is happening all too often in our lives today. Yet it does come out with some profound and wonderful moments of human existence, and it shows what a great family the Comes are, and in particular Tony and Wendy.

This was an exceptional movie that gets into the heart of the entire abuse crisis. Abuse of any kind demoralizes the victim and makes "getting out" extremely difficult. Abuse by an authority figure, relative or priest is just that much more difficult. This movie authenticates the dehumanizing aspect of abuse and the terrible denial that only serves to demean the victim further. The main character, Tony Comes,does a good job of tracing his history and the circumstances that preceded the abuse. The unfolding helps the viewer to understand what the abuse has meant not only to him, his parents, wife and family but also his friends and drinking buddies. They aren't sure of its effects. It is easy to see just how hard it would be to come forward about the abuse. The church's various responses is criminal and at the heart of the story. The very source of comfort is in effect the source of the abuse and the continuing of the abuse.

It's shocking to learn the amount of abuse inflicted by a lot of Catholic priests in the past. There's not a day when one hears about a new case as the abused come forward to accuse what criminal men did to them years ago. Kerby Dick, a brave film maker, takes his camera to a group of people that were the victims of one priest when they were teen agers.

The documentary concentrates on Tony Comes, who finally had the courage to go on record to denounce his abuse. He had plenty of company, or so it seems. In fact, their bishop, who should have taken care in dealing with the corrupt priest, didn't do anything to prevent. In fact, this man chose the easy way out by ignoring the accusations.

Wendy Comes, Tony's wife, is deeply affected when she learns the extent of what her husband suffered in the past. In fact, Wendy was wounded when she discovered the truth. In fact, she had converted to Catholicism when she married Tony. In spite of their trauma, we watch as the Comes' young daughter making her first communion, accompanied by her parents.

Kirby Dick deserves to be congratulated for showing us how the actions of some evil individuals ruined lives by what they did to children who trusted them and saw in them role models.

I thought the documentary was excellent. But to reply to the person who stated that the documentary "hurt the people telling the story" I have a question for you. Have you yourself ever been a victim of abuse? If you had you would find yourself facing a cornucopia of emotions ranging from anger to shame and guilt. Victims of this type of abuse are typically reluctant to come forward. Tony Comes himself states that he didn't know what it meant. Did he mean that he was gay? You cannot sit there and judge these people for not coming forward earlier. It is not a black or white situation and I hope that no one in your family ever experiences something like this. If they did they would have to steer clear of you... God bless Tony and his family...

A great, moving movie! Kirby Dick's films have always shown not only a light touch but an unerring impulse for the right emotional detail, revealing gesture and sense of when to pull back. In "Twist of Faith" he lets the points make themselves: the Church condones child abuse, they cover their tracks and lie about it. Dick's use of church music is especially telling, as is his judicious implementation of his "chain camera" technique: giving subjects their own video-cams to record their thoughts, document outward aspects of their lives and make occasional but heartbreaking confession. If only Art could make Change! Now THAT would be a Twist.