Scaredycat Summary

          

  

The piercing tone and simplified text reading only the documentary title starts the film. A shot of filmmaker and the film’s focus, Andrew Blubaugh flashed on the screen. Blubaugh is gesturing with his hand up in a “stop” motion, followed by shots of unidentified black men, not still but moving. Blubaugh’s narrative begins with a conversation with his father where he recalls his own tendency to worry as a child. “The way you talk about it seems a bit more crippling” a woman’s voice plays over b-roll of Blubaugh first straightening a picture on the wall of his apartment before heading out the door; him walking methodically aligned with paved lines in the concrete, and him straightening a piece of paper on a public transit train. The final shot is a workplace/cubicle shot. In this shot, everything is neat and seems to have its place, with Blubaugh right in the center of the shot (actually he is off-center by the slightest margin, but the negative space between him and his desk makes the shot. In the scene he is moving, but after securing everything in the right spot in just the right way, he becomes motionless and the scene turns into a still shot.

            Kirsten Snowden, Deputy District Attorney in Portland, Oregon introduces herself as a prosecutor for Blubaugh’s attack case. She describes the crime as “relatively senseless.” While she is talking, symmetrical shots play as b-roll of Blubaugh riding through various parts of the city and her introduction ends with a shot of Portland Steel Bridge. This shot transitions to an animated reenactment of Blubaugh being attacked by five strangers while a recording of his initial phone call to the police plays in the background. The animation is dark. A highlighted scene is Blubaugh’s bike laying on the ground, the front wheel still in motion, while shadowy, almost silhouette figured legs walk by. Text of some of Blubaugh’s pleadings to his attackers flash across the screen; “Oh God, Please Let Me go,” and “I have money. The animation ends with a back and forth shot-by-shot frame of Blubaugh making direct eye contact with one of his attackers with police physically describing the potential attackers and their directional heading in fleeing the crime before the entire scene fades to black, again with the piercing tone.

             Jan Hawkin, Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Portland State University introduces herself and reveals that her major area of study includes memory, gender and interpersonal violence. She continued that her interest includes the range of responses available to a person that has experience trauma. “All people have the right to be secure and to be free of violence” she says.” While she talks about her area of research, b-roll plays of Blubaugh performing simple household tasks. His face is clearly bruised and bandaged. A quick shot of the animated reenactment flashes across the screen. “We’re offered two very inadequate responses to violent crimes and violent forms of victimization. One is to turn the other way and just feel well ‘this is what you put up with in a society where people are gonna do bad things to others,’ and the other perhaps worse response is a very punitive one.” A shot of a computer screen reading “Are you OK?” flashes across the screen.

Blubaugh then begins talking about the process of actually being courageous enough to leave his home after his attack. In the shots, Blubaugh is performing his rituals as he had at the beginning of the film His voice over plays during the shots; “I told myself that if I’m out on the street, and I see a young Black man, and I’m not feeling right about it, I’m gonna do what I have to do… and that’s okay. I got beat up so I get to do that now.” Hawkin mentions the one-trial learning theory where “an experience is so potent and significant that you overlearn from that experience and that you overgeneralize from it. Victims then tend to overcompensate by “secur[ing] a safety that really promises us nothing in terms of actual safety.” Blubaugh admits that his anxiety toward Black men is wrong and a racial oversight that did not work to address his trauma. A frame-by-frame shot sequence with Blubaugh on a public train sitting across from a Black man, a shot of the animated reenactment, and a single shot of a Black man. “it just felt like something I could do” Blubaugh says “at least I was doing something.” Hawkin’s voice probes Blubaugh, suggesting that he seems to be interested in overcoming his fear and addressing his attacker head on. While this voiceover plays, a shot of Blubaugh writing to Michael Palmer, one of his attackers, flashed across the screen.

The next scene opens with Blubaugh at his home desk on the phone with Palmer. As his attacker corresponds, a shot of his letter agreeing to participate in the interview flashes across the screen. Blubaugh explains the purpose of his documentary and discloses. “In your case, it was just spur of the moment. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Palmer admits cavalierly while the animation plays again. Blubaugh asks if Palmer had experienced any violence in his past. “It’s quite an experience the first time, isn’t it?” Palmer asks. Hawkins says that a common, yet unfulfilling need of victims is to see the perpetrators of that violence punished. Course case docket documents flash across the screen as she speaks. Snowden talks about Measure 11, a citizen-motivated law that was passed instituting mandatory sentencing minimums for violent crimes with no early release possibilities. Victor Bradley, 19, and Pierre Bass, 18, both received 90 months (the lightest of all sentences passed down in this case) through Measure 11. Anthony Mondrut (spelling?) received 160 months. Robert Irazari (spelling?) received 172 months. Michael Palmer, 22, received 144 months. Pictures of each aggressor flashed as their sentences are disclosed.

Palmer’s voice plays as a voiceover while shots focus on Blubaugh and the tape recorder recording his words. Palmer says it is not fair to sentence someone for that long. He reflects how his life is ruined, as he envisions his future, released with no life skills and a record. “Looking at it on paper, I think that’s terrible. But then when I think about that night, I do want you to be in prison,” Blubaugh says as he straightens the phone and tape recorder on his desk. “At least we’re doing something,” he says again. The film ends with Blubaugh having a conversation with a woman and talking about eliminating fear from our lives. A final shot of Blubaugh on a public train roles as a Black man sits across from Blubaugh. Blubaugh takes in a breath, but does not move, while he sits next to an askew newspaper that he does not touch while Hawkin’s voice plays in the background; “people who are very careful and fearful, who have also tried to understand their over-reactiveness and study their fears, often are more equipped to recognize that all of our fears are partly irrational."