Anita: Speaking Truth to Power is a documentary film which premiered in 2013.
It is about Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the confirmation hearings held by the US Senate in 1991.
Here are some basic facts about this film:
** Written, directed, and produced by Freida Lee Mock
** Released on DVD in 2013
** Run time: 76 minutes
Part one
Anita Hill (born 1956) is an African American lawyer, who graduated from the Law School of Yale University in 1980.
In 1981, she served as an advisor to Clarence Thomas, who was at the time Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
In 1982, when Thomas became chairman of the Equal Employment Occupation Commission, she followed him there. She was his assistant until she left the place in 1983.
Currently, she is a University Professor of Social Policy, Law, and Women's and Gender Studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Clarence Thomas (born 1948) is an African-American lawyer, who graduated from the Law School of Yale University in 1974.
In 1991, he was nominated to fill a seat on the US Supreme Court by President Bush. Anita Hill was called to give evidence at the confirmation hearings held by the Senate.
She became a national figure when she stated that Thomas had behaved inappropriately towards her during the time that she had worked for him (1981-1983). The term used was sexual harassment.
Thomas strongly denied all charges against him. He claimed he was innocent. When the hearings ended, his nomination was confirmed by the Senate, but the votes were 52-48, it was a very narrow margin.
Today Thomas is still a member of the US Supreme Court. He is regarded as one of the conservative members of the court.
Part two
This film covers the confirmation hearings which were held by the Senate in 1991 and explores what happened to Anita Hill and to the US community since then.
The charges made by Anita Hill were strongly denied by Clarence Thomas.
Clearly, one of them was not telling the truth. At the time it was described as a classic “she said-he said” situation in which it was difficult to discover the truth.
The hearings had a huge impact on the life of Anita Hill. For better or worse. Overnight, she became a national figure.
Some people wrote to her to support her and thank her, while other people told her that she was a liar, a traitor, or something worse than that.
The hearings also had a huge impact on the US community.
Sexual harassment became a term what was discussed in public. The number of official complaints increased year by year after the hearings in 1991.
Perhaps the confirmation hearings of 1991 can be described as a milestone in the history of gender and race relations in the US.
Some people believe Anita Hill; they think she was the victim of an organised smear campaign. Other people do not believe her. They think she lied in order to promote herself or perhaps she was used by some white interest group, which did not want to see a black man on the Supreme Court.
This film takes a clear stand. The film-makers believe her. When asked why Anita Hill did what she did, they will say: she spoke out because it was the truth and because she felt she had to tell the truth about a candidate who had been nominated for a seat on the highest judicial authority in the country.
This film is composed by two elements:
(1) Clips from the Senate hearings in 1991
(2) Clips from the present time
The film flips back and forth between the two elements. Anita Hill features prominently in the film which is no surprise, since her name is mentioned in the title, but there are also interviews with other people who are connected with the case and/or her life.
Among the persons interviewed I want to mention Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson who are co-authors of a book about the case that was published in 1994:
Strange Justice
The book was later turned into a television movie with the same title which premiered on US television (Showtime) in 1999.
Part three
A few years after the hearings, Anita Hill wrote an autobiography called Speaking Truth to Power. It was published in 1997 (hardcover) and 1998 (paperback).
When Freida Lee Mock made her film about the case, she used the same title for the film, but she added the first name of the main character. This is why the film is called Anita: Speaking Truth to Power.
Clarence Thomas also appears in the film, but only in a clip from the hearings in 1991 in which he denies the allegations made against him. He is known as a very private person, who almost never gives interviews to the press. If director Freida Mock had asked him for an interview, I am sure he would have declined.
But the film documents very clearly that the events of 1991 are still vividly remembered by Clarence Thomas and his wife.
The film opens with a phone message which Virginia “Ginny” Thomas - wife of Clarence Thomas - left on Anita Hill’s answering machine in October 2010, almost twenty years after the hearings took place.
In this message, she asks Anita Hill to apologize for what she did to her husband and her back in 1991.
At first, Anita Hill thought it was a crank call, but an investigation showed that the message was indeed from Mrs. Thomas.
When reporters asked her about the message, she explained that she wanted to offer an olive branch to Anita Hill.
Supporters of Anita Hill would probably think that this was a strange kind of peace offering. But it shows that the case is still very much alive in the 21st century.
Part four
Anita is an important film about an important issue. The people behind the film make a strong case when they argue that Anita Hill told the truth in 1991.
If you are not convinced, if you want to see more evidence, I can tell you that there is more evidence than is mentioned in the film, and some of this has been available for several years. Here are a few examples:
# 1. When Anita Hill was testifying in 1991, there were other witnesses who were ready to support her testimony, but they were never called.
According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, the Republicans and the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee made a secret deal not to call any more witnesses. They just wanted the hearings to end.
Source: Los Angeles Times, 17 October 1991
A somewhat similar story appeared in the Washington Post three years later, on 9 October 1994: “The Other Woman” by Florence George Graves.
If additional witnesses had been called, and if they had supported the testimony of Anita Hill, the voting might have gone another way. Perhaps the candidate would not have been confirmed.
# 2. Journalist David Brock did everything he could to smear Anita Hill during the hearings in 1991 and later on in a book that was published in 1993. But in 2001, he recanted and apologized to Anita Hill.
For details about this surprising change of heart, see the New York Times, 27 June 2001 and Time magazine, 9 July 2001.
NPR – All Things Considered – broadcast an interview with David Brock on 2 July 2001. This interview is available online.
# 3. In October 2010, Lilian McEwen, who had dated Thomas in the 1980s, broke her 19-year silence and spoke out about Thomas. She said that what Anita Hill had said about Thomas back in 1991 sounded highly likely.
There is an article in the New York Times of 22 October 2010. There is also an interview on CNN: Larry King Live, 26 October 2010.
# 4. Steve Kornacki summarised what we know about the case in an article published in the online magazine Salon on 27 October 2010:
“How we know Clarence Thomas did it.”
Conclusion
What do reviewers say about this film?
Here are some results:
66 percent = IMDb
68 percent = Meta
66 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
79 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
On Amazon there are at the moment 29 ratings of this product, 21 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.8 stars which corresponds to a rating of 96 percent.
I understand the numerous positive reviews and I agree with them.
Anita is an important film about an important topic. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
REFERENCES
I Still Believe Anita Hill
This book, which was published in 2012, is edited by Amy Richards and Cynthia Greenberg.
Confirmation
This is a historical drama which premiered on US television (HBO) in 2016
** Director = Rick Famuyiwa
** Writer = Susannah Grant
** Run time = 110 minutes
Clarence & Ginni Thomas:
Politics, Power and the Supreme Court
This is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in May 2023. This film is an episode of the long-running program Frontline.
** Director = Michael Kirk
** Reporters = Vanessa Fira and Jane Mayer
** Narrator = Will Lyman
** Run time = 114 minutes
*****
Speaking Truth to Power
By Anita Hill
(Hardcover 1997)
(Paperback 1998)
*****
Strange Justice:
The Selling of Clarence Thomas
By Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson
(1994)
*****
The confirmation hearings
held by the Senate in 1991
Who was the chairman of
the judicial committee at that time?
Joe Biden
(president of the US since 2021)
*****
On this blog
My review of
Confirmation
(2016)
*****
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