<i>Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority</i> (review)
Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority (2008) Directed by Kimberlee Bassford Distributed by Women Make Movies www.wmm.com 56 minutes In 2011, the recently perennial biopic genre maintained its weighty presence in mainstream and art-house cinemas. Notably, films depicting the life of historical heavyweights like J. Edgar Hoover, Margaret Thatcher and Marilyn Monroe have been released, critically noted and consumed by viewers. But is the main purpose of biographic films simply to reinforce the presence and knowledge of individuals already well established in the cultural and political national consciousness? Or should the biopic be used to illuminate the lives of those who have been both impactful and groundbreaking, but also heretofore largely ignored or forgotten? Director Kimberlee Bassford attempts to use the biographic film for the latter purpose with her film Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority, which focuses on the life and achievements of the first Asian-American woman to be elected to the United States House of Representatives. Patsy Mink is a competently informational primer on the groundbreaking figure, and relies largely on reliable, if predictable, documentary techniques. But surely a subject as radical and sui generis as Mink could have lent itself to a far more incisive, complex and daring ways of presenting her story - much in the same way that Mink exhibited all of those qualities when blazing numerous trails in her political and personal life. With Patsy Mink, what the viewer is left with is a lesson in originality wrapped in a structurally and aesthetically restrained package. Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority traces the trials and achievements of the groundbreaking Congresswoman. Connecting her early years in Hawaii to her formative years in the continental United States, Bassford traces Mink's evolution from an idealistic young girl to a fiercely independent politician. The film begins Mink's portrait by establishing her as emblematic of the minority experience in 1950s America, as she faced discrimination both due to her gender (in her chosen career paths) as well as her ethnicity (at school). While establishing Mink's raft of unique achievements - including a brief run for president, being instrumental in attaining statehood to Hawaii, and being a rare, early and vocal opponent of both the Vietnam War and the War on Terror - Bassford makes the case that, while running up against entrenched interests and societal barriers, Mink was a stern but happy warrior. The most engaging sequences of the film are when Mink herself is present - either through filmed interviews, voiceover segments or in found footage of her time on the House floor. The assertion that Mink is a cultural and political warrior, as Bassford is quick to point out throughout the film, is most clearly evidenced by the sheer will and grit of Mink, both through her presence and the indelible mark she left on others. …