Denial: The First Step to Acceptance
Directed by Derek Hallquist (2016)
Film Review
This is a very unusual documentary. I assumed it would profile the climate denial movement, but it does so only very indirectly. The film is actually a very touching profile of the filmmaker’s father, the obsessive compulsive CEO of a Vermont electrical utility who makes the difficult decision at age 50 to transition to female.
David Hallquist, whose Vermont Electricity Cooperative runs on hydropower, has been an industry pioneer in promoting the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. In the film, his wife and adult children struggle with his decision to become female. It features clips from the therapist they work with. The latter helps other family members fully understand and work through their feelings of denial.
For me, the most intriguing segment of the film concerns Hallquist senior’s diagnosis of state 3 prostate cancer. When his oncologist recommends castrations (which has a 90% success rate), he’s almost gleeful to be relieved of the difficult decision whether to move from occasional cross dressing to full hormonal transition.
The Most Revolutionary Act 
Soul. Atma. That spark of divine life which God has placed within the human or other forms to give them existence. That which has no form, no movement, no location in the world of time and space, but has the ability to know, see, hear, and perceive; that is, has perception, opinions, and the ability to assume, or claim, a position in life’s work, or the spiritual worlds; the creative center of Its own world. See also aura; beingness.
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Reblogged this on Alexanders' Blog.
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