Is it Important to See Movies About the Enslavement of Black People in the US?

Or is it just “Trauma Porn” to be avoided?

To this day, I have never watched the movie The Passion of the Christ. At the time the movie came out, I happened to have an active interest in trying to be Christian. So it would have been a natural development if I had wanted to check out the movie, which was receiving huge buzz and turning out big crowds.

What I think kept me away was reading reviews that were very descriptive of the action in the movie. The ordeal of Jesus — the 12 hours before his death graphically and intimately depicting scourging and crucifixion — is dealt with in exquisite detail. There was a lot of controversy at the time over the necessity of showing that intensity of violence and cruelty and suffering.

There is a similar controversy bubbling in the Black community, namely- what exactly is the motivation for producing such movies, and what is the value of our going to see them?

Devout Christians were reporting having profound spiritual experiences from viewing the film. They were enthusiastic about the potential the film had to bring people closer to God from experiencing and empathizing with the suffering of Jesus. But after reading what was in store for me to see, I took a hard pass and have never had a second thought about it. I didn’t then, and still do not…