In a very spirited gathering celebrating one of Brandeis' own, the 2013 documentary film ANITA: Speaking Truth to Power made its New England premiere last Wednesday evening in the Wasserman Cinematheque of the Sachar International Center. The film centers around Justice Clarence Thomas' election to the Supreme Court in 1991 and the way that Prof. Anita Hill's (Heller) brave outspokenness during the election spawned her now-infamous legacy as a political and feminist activist. It officially premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this January.

Wednesday's screening was heavily attended by Brandeis faculty, administrators and affiliates, as well as by a handful of students. Following the film, the audience stayed for a talkback with its director, Freida Mock, as well as Anita Hill herself, who is now a senior advisor to the provost and a professor of Social Policy, Law and Women and Gender Studies here at Brandeis. University President Frederick Lawrence delivered a gracious introduction sharing, "When I'm in a room with Anita Hill, I can say she is the person I have known the longest and who has known me the longest," and praising her "ability to speak truth to power," and warmly adding, "I'm the better for it."

The film itself was a mindfully crafted cinematic experience-a pastiche of footage and photographs from the original 1991 hearing of Hill's statement speaking out against Thomas' sexual harassment of her, and interviews with Hill's colleagues and family, as well as other footage from events in her activism, teaching and law careers. Spanning Hill's early college years to the present day, all of these film snippets were connected into a chronologically sensible storyline that Hill narrated. The film began with a shot of her office telephone while the viewer listened to the actual infamous voicemail from 2010. The message featured Ginny Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, begging Hill to apologize for "all the things you did to my husband back in '91," and ending with a chipper "Have a nice day!"-at which point the audience errupted into laughter.

The film was most heavily based in explaining to viewers what actually happened during the 1991 hearing from Hill's firsthand experience-an explanation now almost 20 years overdue. Taking a step back from Ginny Thomas' odd phone call-which, as Hill comically explained in the talkback, she received at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning-the film then focused on Hill's early career. She first developed a professional relationship with Justice Thomas while working with him during his time in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the early 1980s. It was there that Hill became the victim of sexual harassment in the workplace-something that is, even today, too often overlooked and even accepted-the victim of Thomas' crude and demeaning comments on a daily basis. As a professional who was both African-American and female in the 1980s, Hill was highly aware of the social confines that trapped her; previously, no woman in her position had a voice to use against this sort of harassment. After this carefully constructed introduction, the film moved on to show how Hill combated her circumstances and how she proudly claimed her voice.

The film explains Hill's earnest, morally upright intentions in sending her statement about Thomas' inexcusable behavior to the federal government upon being interviewed about her former boss, who had just been nominated to become a Supreme Court Justice. By chronicling the ensuing hearing, the film also explained the circumstances that Hill faced in trying to maintain and deliver the truth-unrelenting scrutiny from a panel of over 20 middle-aged, Caucasian, male members of Congress, most of whom would rather not have given Hill an audience in the first place.

While most media coverage at the time of the hearing more readily broadcasted generalized stories or even aligned its views with those of the officials on the panel, Mock's film approached the hearing with the thoughtfulness and decency that Hill deserved. The film showed Hill's parents arriving at the hearing and hugging their daughter, sitting confidently as the men made every attempt possible to slash her character. The entirety of the film solidified the image of Hill-a strong, honorable and honest woman, the kind of woman who is a parent's pride and joy, and whose strength can anchor a family. Moving away from the relatively brief hearing that had such an impact on Hill's career trajectory, the film took care to construct a transitional conclusion, focusing on Hill's work empowering young women through knowledge, activism and example. During the talkback, she explained how crucial her work is, saying: "they are growing up in a society that sends them very conflicting messages... [but] in the end, what any of us have is our authentic selves."

In a way, though the film was really about Hill's legacy, it also embodied the spirit of Brandeis, the reason we all look fondly upon our alma mater. Brandeis breeds the kind of young men and women who will follow in Hill's footsteps, and step up where injustice reigns. Mock, looking fondly at the subject of her film, perhaps said this best during the talkback, "You have a national treasure at this school [in Anita Hill.]."