Finding a Way to Heal: Frame Documentary ‘Jeannette’ Focuses on Survivors of Pulse Nightclub Massacre

Janet Feliciano is a member of a growing but unrelated club in America: survivors of a mass shooting. Every week the club is expanding. Manages Friendly Market Users in Buffalo, New York; Kids in Uvalde, Texas. According to the Archives of Gun Violence, more than 250 mass shootings have claimed lives in the United States this year.

Six years ago this week, Feliciano went to meet his friends at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It was Latin night, a fun weekly event with loud music. After midnight, a gunman entered the club and opened fire, killing the regulars left and right. With 53 injured, the death toll rose to 49.

Feliciano and dozens of others are locked in a fight as police and gunmen engage in a three-hour shootout. SWAT teams fled after dismantling part of the building. “I live with it every day,” Feliciano said of the horrific event.

News coverage of such events is often cautious: sudden media convergence resulting in a decline, which will be reactivated for the next shot. The long-term impact of these devastating events on survivors often goes unnoticed. a new documentary JanetA rare film directed by Marie Kuran that examines how a survivor of a mass shooting tries to cope with trauma and move on with her life.

“As a film director, what interests me is the result. “This is the area we live in,” said Kuran. “I wonder what will happen after the news cameras fill up. And I’m interested in a very current movie, less about that night… The movie really has that choppy effect. “It’s about how, if such a terrible event affected one person, it actually affected and changed the whole society.”

Janet It will premiere later today on Frameline in San Francisco at the Quartz Film Festival, which describes itself as “the world’s most recognized LGBTQ+ film event.” The film’s creator and the subject were first introduced when Kuran was hired to run an anti-discrimination campaign after the Pulse massacre, a video project starring Feliciano.

“Janet and I discovered something in each other when we met,” writes Kuran. “We are both very strict women who have suffered sexual and physical abuse. By nature, each of us is shaped in response to the violence we face as girls and later as women, and we have spent most of our adult lives articulating the personal impact of violence and have yet to define it. ”

Feliciano remembers feeling a little reluctant in the documentary.

“I don’t want to get my pulse going,” Feliciano told Deadline. “Then there was also the sense of who to trust. Maris and I had the opportunity to talk. And those two hours of conversation made it easier for me to be cautious because although we look so different, we are so alike. I never knew which direction this project should take, but I knew that many treatments were needed in the process. And believe it or not, it goes beyond the pulse. There is so much healing that people need.”

Kuran spent five years on film, following single mom Feliciano as she raises her teenage son, Anthony. The documentary also showcases Feliciano’s work as a fitness trainer, often working with heart rate survivors, and his relentless training regimen for bodybuilding competitions.

“I was very impressed with Janet and I was very impressed with her hard work. I’m excited when he sets a goal and says, “Today I’m going to race and win.” And in the middle of a packed time [personal] “The riots are an incredibly tumultuous moment,” said Kuran. “This is one of the main reasons I think it’s so important to turn the lens on it. [is] Let’s talk a little bit about resistance and what it means… I think Janet’s example of resistance, immersion and withdrawal is very important”.

The film explores the most important relationships in Janet’s life, not only with her son, but also with her boyfriend, who eventually returned to Puerto Rico, and with Feliciano’s mother, a Puerto Rican-born Puerto Rican who comes to live in Orlando with her husband. . The mother’s religious beliefs as a Jehovah’s Witness hinder her ability to accept her daughter’s sexuality.

“When Maris finished, she didn’t want to see the movie. I didn’t want to… Especially because of my upbringing, I didn’t want to see the argument scene with my mother,” Feliciano said. “I respect my mother very much and I was afraid to see her. But there is so much beauty in this. So I was able to grow up just by watching this… The meaning of this documentary for me was to look like a little girl again and watch a movie that almost says, “Look, I love my mom so much”.

The Pulse massacre was the bloodiest mass shooting in US history until it was overshadowed by the 2017 Las Vegas attack that killed 60 people. However, there seems to be less talk of the pulse today, perhaps due to the nature of the victim.

“It wasn’t just a gay night at the club, it was a Latin night as well. “Many of the survivors and victims were part of the LGBT community, but also LatinX people,” the director said. “This is a society that has been neglected before. That’s one of the reasons why this type of abandonment is echoed in the movie where we travel to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. I think it resonated a lot with Janet emotionally. I felt that this experience was more what it seemed, due to the feeling of abandonment on paper. “There are also very strong parallels with government negligence where the government should have done more in both cases.”

Feliciano is still enraged at the response of law enforcement to his heartbeat.

“They let all the people in that club die,” he said. “I am sad [inside] Until he decides to blow up the side of the building to capture and kill this man. One of the girls was 18 years old. They shot him in the arm. It takes 45 minutes for your body to bleed. That girl died because they did nothing… Yes, they allowed all these deaths. and he was latin [night]. Would it be different if it was a white club? I think so too? Yes, I definitely do, but you’re part of the LGBT community. When those who are not with them, their mentality is: Ah, let the whole world die.

Feliciano strongly argues that his own trauma should not outweigh the trauma of others.

“Never, never, ever use me on any kind of pedestal or anything like that because I got involved in a mass shooting,” he said. “When you do and you [say]“What happened was much worse. Worse still, he won’t let it. Joyful chance of cure your Your own wounds, your own trials, your own problems… Do not stop the healing process and do not rush the healing process. Cry the days you want to cry; On days when you want to go crazy, swear, and throw things away, go for it. “Give yourself the opportunity to heal, give yourself the opportunity to overcome your emotions.”

Janet Kuran says there will be a busy film festival launch in the coming months. Broader distribution plans are on hold, but the director hopes to see more viewers next year.

“I hope the movie can touch people,” says Kuran. “I hope people can engage in conversations that are not adequate, especially about violence. maybe something like this [film] When we talk about legislation, you can move the needle when we put a human face on such problems and say that they are not statistics. We can count the number of corpses that have tragically disappeared. What about all affected communities? That is our reality in this country right now.”