A Stab at Truth

I was a little late to the party. It was 2011. My wife and I went to see the film “Your Sister’s Sister” at The Belcourt here in Nashville. 

To this day I haven’t seen “Humpday.” 

Probably gonna have to add that to the list now.”

I remember seeing “Your Sister’s Sister” thinking, how do you do that? 

How do you make something so intimate and true? How does that come from someone? How are you that honest with the world? I was in a place of not knowing how to be openly myself at that time wanting to please others.

Then, over the next few years I’d notice a similar name directing episodes I enjoyed from a myriad of shows. 

Then GLOW happened. Specifically this moment in season 3. (Pictured below)

Glow Season 3

I watched it over and over again. I wanted to transport myself into the space and time when the team of creators and this episode’s director were sitting in a room looking at the script discussing how they could make this magic happen. 

Next I did what I’ve come to do quite a bit. I checked the internet for who directed it. 

Lynn Shelton. 

Of course she did. 

She has a way of getting into the bloodstream with her work. I get the feeling she was one of those directors who truly wanted the actors to have an experience and with the craft of camera, lighting, set, make-up, art, music, edit, sound and all the hundreds of other moving pieces making moving pictures move us I really like her style. 

Two things jump out at me from that last paragraph. 

One, I’ve clearly been reading too much Michael Chabon lately cuz that last sentence just didn’t quit. 

Second, I wrote of her in past and present tense. 

The thing about art is it’s timeless. It can move us today and for years to come. It’s the work of capturing the world in a singular moment that travels time and space to remain poignant past painful history or hilarious long after the talkies seemingly give Keaton one last long Buster down the stairs or take away time leaving Lloyd to dangle for dear life. 

Just recently I watched Shelton’s last feature film, “Sword of Trust.” 

Of course I watched it because it has Marc Maron in it. He’s an old friend. We’ve never met and he doesn’t know I exist but for years he has spoken to me in my earbuds or through the speakers of my car radio as he has hour long conversations with people he finds interesting on his podcast, WTF. 

The name of his podcast means exactly what you think it does and if the letters WTF offend you, I’d suggest you not listen. 

In Marc I found a fellow member of the secret society of ex-problem drinkers. I listen to him share his experience in a sort of code only clued into by those of us who know the language and understand the phrasing. 

Back to the movie, Sword Of Trust...

I thought, hey, this will be a fun movie to catch in the midst of a nationwide shutdown. It’s about some people trying to sell a Civil War sword that “proves the South actually won the Civil War.” It’ll be funny and I’ll laugh and think it’s got a lot of heart and Jillian Bell is in it and she’s friends with a friend of mine so we are practically related. 

What I didn’t expect was the most honest conflict of how to deal with someone struggling with addiction as a subplot. Maron’s execution of this dilemma, his new found cohort of sword sellers astute assessment of his continued love for her and Lynn Shelton’s portrayal of the addict played with conviction and sincerity hit me in the gut with love and hope that society could actually one day learn how talk openly about the destruction of addiction. 

Now on a late Sunday night with the buzz of the refrigerator humming in the background and my whole life asleep at the other end of the house I sit in the realization that my old friend who has never met me is going through all the emotions that come from his partner’s sudden death. 

Lynn Shelton passed away Friday from a previously undiagnosed blood disorder. She and Marc has been together for a while. Like my wife and me... like many of you, they’d been with each other all day every day for the last couple of months. 

He began doing these silly love videos on Instagram where he comedically owned his grumpy old persona in the midst of technology and a lack of connection with the outside world. And he played guitar a lot. And talked about his cats and the strange gifts his fans had sent his way. 

I don’t have an ending to this post. I don’t know how to wrap it up into a bow with a profound “stick the landing” type jab or even a clever callback from something I’d previously written. I just know that in all the noise where people shout online about conspiracy theories on Covid being the plot of Obama or how the President is a racist, the notion of a Civil War Truther doesn’t seem that funny after all. 

But in the midst of the comedy is the pain of addiction and I guess there again, Lynn Shelton is teaching us presently when she has passed from this life.  

Thanks for letting us know you Lynn. God I hope a lot of folks follow in your footsteps to tell the truth.