E den was not just a work of art. It was made to be used for justice. And whether moving pictures can deliver justice is a question that has driven Americans into the streets as draws to a close.
It shows police and EMTs then leaving Garner still for several minutes without any intervention, and the coroner later ruled the death a homicide, but the grand jury decided not to charge the NYPD officer. Eden and the Staten Island video were not made for the same reasons, or in the same way, but both are hard to watch, and both are supposed to be useful.
The Staten Island video was rendered futile in the sense that it did not result in charges. But it was not futile at all in the sense that the dying words captured in it are the basis of the chants and hashtags and T-shirts animating protests on streets and NBA courts and NFL fields all over the country now. Those protests are determined to make that video mean something, regardless of what the grand jury didn't do. By claiming to be based on truth, Eden causes itself to be compared to real-life footage.
And if it is only a false alarm, then it causes problems while changing nothing: Society's existing bias toward doubting survivors of sexual violence is reinforced, as is the oversimplification of stories about sex work. Nothing is improved for anybody. The movie becomes meaningless in the same way as the video. The awful prospect that the Garner video or Eden might be meaningless in the end is ultimately about the usefulness and reliability of facts.
Meanwhile, 1. The podcast is called Serial , and it's the fastest podcast in history to hit five million downloads, according to Apple. It began in October, and Sarah Koenig is the host. She's re-prosecuting a murder case, testing the guilty verdict that put the victim's ex-boyfriend in jail for life, and coming up with details that both sides missed the first time around.
Koenig chases every lead, does her own reenactments, obsesses over every detail. Mike Pesca of Slate kicked off his audio interview with Koenig this fall by saying, "As I listen to Serial , I have this thought in my head: Don't let this wind up being a contemplation on the nature of truth, don't let this wind up being a contemplation on the nature of truth.
It's a whodunit, damnit. At the end of the day, will we get a satisfying answer to who killed the young woman, or only philosophizing? There's a moment when Pesca tries to pin down Koenig on how the story will end. Does she know? If he had a day left to live, could she tell it to him now? He's asking in October, two months in advance of the final episode's airdate. Well, with "64, 66 percent certainty," she tells him. No, no, she reconsiders, more like 70 percent.
A few seconds later, "I might even back up from 70 to I'm not trying to be coy at all, it's just that we are in the thick of certain things. Serial is all thicket, more and more. Here is a settled story by the standards of society. The justice system has already declared the ex-boyfriend guilty. Journalists wouldn't call him an "alleged" murderer, just a murderer.
Serial is an example of somebody doing more than what Griffiths must have done. But I agree with Pesca. Facing down the prospect of the final episode of Serial , I don't want ambiguity.
I want something like revelation. I n all my conversations about Eden in the last few months, one stands out. Munoz lives in Orange County, California, where a few years ago she founded an organization that was part of the "rescue industry" Matisse disparages.
Munoz's nonprofit, Abeni, at first was focused on survivors, similar to the Seattle group the Organization for Prostitution Survivors.
She'd been trafficked herself. But somehow, Abeni as an anti-trafficking organization felt wrong to Munoz. It turned out she was biased by her final experiences in the sex industry, but those experiences weren't the whole story. When she was 18, she willingly became an escort. I wanted to try new things. She was right in the middle of the spectrum ranging from happy hooker to exploited victim.
The third stage was, she explained to me, when a friend blackmailed her into selling her body and giving him her earnings for three years by threatening to "out" her as a sex worker. Munoz had lived the full range of what a true sex worker's story can be. She decided to reopen Abeni after having "done a complete But Abeni also supports and cares for people who love their jobs in porn, Munoz told me. Why do porn workers need support? Because even if they're in the best possible scenario, they're still, as Munoz knows intimately, part of a society based on the simplification of stories, a society that creates demand for sex work while largely insisting that sex workers are only sympathetic if they are victims, if they have stories like Eden.
Matisse describes Abeni as "a reality-based social services organization for sex workers and trafficked people. She is aligned with both the movement for sex workers' rights and the movement against sex trafficking—opposing sides in the debate about what is the real truth in a work of art like Eden.
Munoz said she knows Chong Kim a little. She has thoughts on Eden , and thoughts on Kim's story and frame of mind, but she declined to share them. What I found myself drawn to instead was Munoz herself, this complex person who reminds me of what Virginia Woolf wrote about people and their stories: "For she had a great variety of selves to call upon, far more than we have been able to find room for, since a biography is considered complete if it merely accounts for six or seven selves, whereas a person may well have as many thousand.
Munoz's original story that she was an exploited victim certainly would have passed the "based on a true story" test. But Munoz became a different kind of narrator when she decided to allow conflicting facts to coexist without resolution. Since she's come out with her full story, her parents have become horrified and distant, she said, because "it's only socially acceptable if I've been victimized And that more complicated movie?
That's the kind we need indie film for. Eden fails as an indie, in addition to failing as a work of art that tells useful truth. Look, it's not as if Eden has violated some sanctified genre. As I've discovered in trying to locate any accountability whatsoever under the tag "based on a true story," the category is empty.
That artists think they need to use the label at all speaks volumes about our cultural belief that fiction can't actually tell the truth, or can't tell it in a way that will matter. I want artists to have a voice in the real world, and I was glad Griffiths wanted her art to make a difference, but what kind of art makes the most difference? Is there any correlation between "realism" or claims to truth and how effective a work of art can be in moving people to fight against cruelty or injustice?
On reflection, I have to admit that in championing Eden , I was confusing the artist's voice—an artist, as citizen, can speak out or vote on anything she likes—with the voice of the art itself. After all this attempted investigation, from what I can tell now, George Orwell's utterly fictional and allegorical Animal Farm , with pigs and horses and dogs and donkeys for characters, is a truer story about totalitarianism than Eden is about American sex trafficking.
And Animal Farm continues to inform and influence people. To do more for real girls, Griffiths ought to have made a truer fiction. Dear Stranger readers: YOU are an essential part of what we do. Thanks, we appreciate you! Features Dec 17, What does art that claims to be "based on a true story" owe its audience?
When the "true" part gets called into question, and the art-makers go silent, what are we supposed to think? From Oct 24th - Nov 6th enjoy diverse culinary menus at great prices in Tukwila!
Support The Stranger More than ever, we depend on your support to help fund our coverage. Support local, independent media with a one-time or recurring contribution. Thank you! Festival ends at Seattle's sexiest Halloween party. The Stranger depends on your continuing support to provide articles like this one. In return, we pledge our ongoing commitment to truthful, progressive journalism and serving our community. Thank you—you are appreciated! Matt O'Leary as the cool and hardened Vaughan was also very believable.
The rest of the cast also did an excellent job and made the movie what it was. Don't watch this movie if you have a weak stomach. Even though there isn't much over the top violence, just the thought of what is going on could turn your stomach.
The fact that it is based on a true story makes it all the more heart wrenching. Details Edit. Release date July 19, United Kingdom. United States. Official Facebook Official site. English Chinese Spanish. Abduction of Eden. Technical specs Edit.
Runtime 1h 38min. Related news. May 13 IF. Contribute to this page Suggest an edit or add missing content. Top Gap. By what name was Eden officially released in India in English? See more gaps Learn more about contributing. Edit page. Top review. Very Bingeable. I realise this has had some bad reviews but I have tio admit I was hooked right the way through and really enjoyed this series..
Lots of messed up characters and corrupt cops which is standard in many plots these days but I liked the characters and enjoyed the twists. Characters and individual story lines could have been played out more but hey it worked for me as easy to watch entertainment. Loved viewing through different characters too. Details Edit. Release date June 11, Australia. Technical specs Edit. Color Color. Related news. Sep 28 The Playlist. Contribute to this page Suggest an edit or add missing content.
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