Confirmation is an HBO movie about the Anita Hill testimony in the confirmation hearings for now Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Kerry Washington plays Anita Hill in this biopic. Wendell Pierce plays Clarence Thomas.
One Supreme Court Justice died suddenly last week. President Obama will nominate a successor soon. But this is an election year, and several of the Justices now serving are quite elderly (even though old ain’t dead). The person who ends up in the White House next will probably get to name one or possibly two more Justices if they make it through 8 years as President.
Due to the absence of just a few votes, each of us can count the differences in our lives, our nation, and our world.
-Gloria SteinemIf you haven’t read or heard the story that Gloria Steinem tells about how a few votes in a Missouri election in 1980 led to Clarence Thomas being on the Supreme Court you really must: Why It’s So Important to Be a Passionate Voter. Read all the way to the end where the bullet points lay out the timeline. It drives home the point of how important a few votes are to the course of history. And of how important it was that Anita Hill’s testimony was dismissed and demonized.
Which brings us back to Confirmation, made suddenly more relevant because of current events.
In the 1980s it was obvious to anyone watching the confirmation hearings that Anita Hill was not going to be believed over the word of a man.
I was young, newly married, and concerned with getting my career started in the 1960s. In the 1970s I was very busy taking care of two children and working. The whole women’s liberation movement kind of passed me by. In the 80s, I looked up and took a breath. I noticed Anita Hill. The sight of her sitting there facing an army of men and not backing down inspired me. Her story made me angry. It was the first time I understood what feminism was all about. It was the first time I realized the injustice of the patriarchy and actually saw it, felt it, got it.
This film, this story, means a lot to me. I don’t have HBO so I don’t know when I’ll be able to see it. I hope you watch it. I hope it gets good reviews. I’ll bet Kerry Washington is going to be brilliant as Anita Hill.
Susannah Grant wrote the film. Confirmation will premier in April on HBO.