The 8th Pulitzer Prize Winners Workshop is officially over. It’s a pity if you missed the insightful talks but a good movie is always timeless. – Let’s watch Spotlight with Matt Carroll
Spotlight is that kind of movie that resonates and stays with people because it helps victims to deal with the abuse and helps journalists figure out how they can cover stories like this, said Matt Carroll, member of the eponymous investigative team in the Boston Globe that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for breaking the clergy sex abuse scandal.
Even though some changes are expected to happen in movies, Mr. Carroll said the movie, Spotlight, is “a truthful fiction”.
“There’s no crazy stuff that never happens in real life,” he said. “There is no car crash, no sex scene, no gunfire, no anything with violence. It’s just people with two straight hours and it’s really well-done.”
Mr. Carroll admitted “it’s kind of boring in a way” but “the movie just feels like you are inside the investigation”.
Members in the real Spotlight team also helped with the scriptwriting of the movie to make sure it stays as true to reality as possible.
In the movie, Mr. Carroll (Brian d'Arcy James) makes an impressive scene when he checks the spreadsheet and realises that a “rehab facility’’ for priests accused of sexual abuse is located right around the corner from his own house.
“Actually, it was Geoghan’s house,” said Mr. Carroll, explaining a slight difference from the reality in the movie. He then left a note on the refrigerator telling the kids to stay away from the house and the priests just like the character did in the movie.
Mr. Carroll said Spotlight is a movie of significance and he believes “it’s gonna have a long life in movies” even “for unfortunate reasons” because it is about sexual abuse issues.
By Vimvam Tong and Fifi Tsui
Edited by Yue Gao and Caroline Kwok
https://www.facebook.com/tyrmag/posts/2139833442707841
Comments