Keely and Du, Lake of Fire, and Shmushsmortion

Recently, I was perusing Roger Ebert's website for new film reviews when I came across this review of Lake of Fire, a documentary that recently played at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. Filmmaker Tony Kaye (perhaps best known for his very public battle with producers over the editing of his film American History X) spent 16 years producing this documentary about the U.S. debate over abortion. Ebert says of the film, "Readers often complain about documentaries that don't tell "both sides." Those who care deeply about the issue of abortion in America, no matter which side they are on, may complain that Lake of Fire tells the other side. This is a brave, unflinching, sometimes virtually unwatchable documentary that makes such an effective case for both pro-choice and pro-life that it is impossible to determine which side the filmmaker, Tony Kaye, stands on."

Of course, reading about this film immediately reminded me of reading Keely and Du, Jane Martin's startling 1993 drama that explores the same topic in fictional terms. Keely and Du won the 1994 American Theater Critics Association New Play Award and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize (Read more about Keely and Du here). Next week, ICT begins rehearsing this challenging and touching work, exploring the relationship that forms between Keely, a young woman seeking an abortion, and Du, the pro-life activist who wants to protect Keely's unborn child. In my assessment of the play, it seems Martin is careful never to paint either side as completely right or wrong, good or evil, allowing the audience an opportunity to form their own conclusions. In this way, Keely and Du is the perfect play to embody ICT's mission.

I wanted to read more to compare Martin's and Kaye's approaches to this controversial topic. In my googling frenzy, I came across a very interesting interview that Kaye did about this film with Scott Tobias from The Onion AV Club. In addition to the interesting insights within the interview itself, the article also sparked quite a lively message board debate about the film and the issue of abortion that I think is worth reading for futher perspective going into Keely and Du. At one point within the message board discussion, Tobias even felt compelled to jump back into the conversation to add his own opinion of the film: "Kaye's trying to survey the landscape and just get a very basic sense of what abortion entails and the war of ideas (and bullets) that's taking place over it. One of the things I appreciated about the movie is its curiosity: You might get a sense of the director's own feelings after watching the film, but it's the furthest thing from agitprop. It's a dispassionate portrait of a passionate issue, and that's not easy to pull off."

A major fracas was created when last summer's Hollywood blockbuster Knocked Up charmed audiences with a story about an unplanned pregnancy that neatly and quickly dismissed abortion as an option. Read about this criticism of the film here. I enjoyed Knocked Up, but this is an interesting discussion. Slate does a good job of compiling all the evidence. I found Barbara Ehrenreich's op-ed piece particularly compelling reading. What did you think?

Sadly, I'm too far away geographically from Chicago to be able to see either Lake of Fire (though I have already saved it on Netflix!) or Keely and Du, so now I am requesting your help. Did anybody see Lake of Fire when it was in Chicago (or anywhere else)? What did you think of it?

I urge you to go see Keely and Du next month and compare and contrast. And then report back to me. I think we could have a really interesting discussion about all this. 2008 marks the 25th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and yet we are still hotly debating that decision. Weigh in!!!

-Laura