Tester
Brilliant, brutal, overwhelming, a con job, those are all words that are being used to describe the new film �Precious,� which is based on the novel �Push� by Sapphire. It tells the story of a 16-year-old black girl living in Harlem in the Reagan years, whose impassive face and huge girth are no mask for the pain she is carrying - the pain of unrelenting physical and sexual abuse at the hands of both parents. But somehow she finds a way to survive.
The film produced by entertainment superstars Oprah and Tyler Perry and produced and directed by Lee Daniels, who also produced such provocative films as �Monsters Ball� and �The Woodsman,� has already scooped up awards at various film festivals and been touted as Oscar material. But it has also opened up some difficult conversations about race and poverty, about sexual abuse, and about skin color, even about how black filmmakers portray dark-skinned people.
In a few minutes, we'll talk about just how real �Precious� is. How real her story is. We'll talk to a human rights activist who advocates for incarcerated, women many of whom have been victims of exactly the kind of abuse depicted in the film. But first, we're going to talk about some of the cultural conversations being sparked by �Precious.� The online magazine the Root has published a number of pieces related to the film and two of the writers are with us now.
Teresa Wiltz is the Roots' senior culture writer and she's also serving as interim managing editor. She's here with us in our Washington, D.C. studio along with Jada Smith who is a writer at the Root. Welcome ladies, thank you for joining us.
Ms. JADA SMITH (Writer, The Root): Thank you.
Ms. TERESA WILTZ (Senior Culture Writer, The Root): Thank you.
MARTIN: Teresa, as I mentioned, the Root has published a number of pieces about this film. Why do you think there's so much interest in it? Is it just because it's a big Hollywood roll out with a lot of big stars? Or is it something else about it that you think makes people want to talk about it.
Ms. WILTZ: I think both. There has been an enormous amount of buzz about this. I mean it's got the Oprah stamp and the Tyler Perry stamp. But it's really this little art movie and, you know, we don't normally see stories about girls such as Precious.
MARTIN: What did you think of this film? I mean, you were - you not only sort of edited the package and brought pieces into the package, you kind of started the dialogue and encouraged the dialogue about the film, but you also wrote a piece about the film. So�