Vanessa Redgrave: The burning questions persist

Vanessa Redgrave need not wear an armband and raise a clenched fist to prove her continuing passion for social change. She has proven it time and again, in her campaign for human rights and political causes. The United Nations Ambassador for the Arts has been a magnet for controversy for her views on oppression, poverty and other stirring social issues.

But this is not enough to silence her. After all, when she talks, the whole world listens — for many reasons. First, she’s Vanessa Redgrave. Second, she expresses herself in the most articulate of ways. And third, because she has the powerful media of film and TV. At 71, Redgrave not gotten tired asking questions and showing solutions.

“Despite the wonderful efforts of people who really care, why do many people still have nothing? It’s an intolerable situation,” she laments.

Vanessa knows the United Nations has set a 2015 deadline to eradicate poverty, but she doubts if this dream will come true.

“We have everything at hand to be able to do it. But why isn’t it being done?” she asks. “Where are the people who can help (bring) change?”

She is not pointing the finger at anyone. Instead, she is helping find the answer in the best way she knows how: through The Fever, an HBO Original Movie that premieres Tuesday, Oct. 21, 9 p.m. on HBO.

In the film which her son Carlo Nero directs, Vanessa plays a nameless woman from London who, feeling a sense of disconnection from her comfortable life, travels to a poor country in the throes of civil war.

Redgrave may have not resorted to something as drastic as leaving the comforts of home to search for answers, but she can identify with the woman.

“I went to that journey of questioning my life,” she reveals. “I’ve always been involved in human rights, politics and the situation that bring people, families, communities and whole regions into terrible poverty. It was a journey I was personally involved with.”

Personally and passionately involved in, that is.

As the woman who slumps on the bathroom floor and asks herself questions about poverty, oppression, injustice and the like, Vanessa is voicing out the things she agonizes about to this day.

“This film represents everything I could have ever wished to try to find or express in my life as a woman and as an actress,” she declares.

Redgrave goes down to brass tacks: “We were dealing with something much bigger than ourselves, as big as everything we were ever concerned about: Racism, violence, repression, bravery, courage. Self-examination is the key to the story.”

You see searing images of poor people peering from dilapidated homes, roaming aimlessly in the streets. You watch, helpless as images of young, promising lives nipped in the bud through one deafening gunblast, flash onscreen.

It could be anywhere — Asia, Africa, the Middle East. The point is, the images disturb and shock.

You also writhe in pain as the woman, with blooded face and arms, asks why so many people suffer while others live in luxurious homes.

The questions beg for answers — swift, correct answers.

No wonder Redgrave says, “We made a pledge to ourselves that we will make this film and we wouldn’t give up.”

Talking right to the camera the way her character did may be new and hard, even for an Oscar winner like Redgrave.

“I had to learn. The most important thing is to really, really get close to your inner self and not act,” she says.

She got a lot of help from her director-son. Like his mother, Carlo believes in changing people’s perception of the world through film.

So he tirelessly traveled to four to five countries, looking for the right place to shoot those poverty scenes in.

“This film questions the very foundation of our society and civilization,” he relates. “How is it that so many people seem to have so little, virtually nothing, and so few have so much? Poverty, famine and disease should be things of the past.”

Yes, it’s another case of like mother, like son. The connection is so natural, Vanessa says it’s “a marriage made in heaven.”

Both knew “we were working on something bigger than ourselves.”

Vanessa and Carlo are not the only kindred spirits on the set. There’s Angelina Jolie, who plays a freedom fighter Redgrave meets in church. Jolie, herself admired for her staunch adherence to humanitarian causes, appears in many of the scenes. And Redgrave is more than pleased.

“Angelina was incredibly generous with her time. She’s a special woman,” raves Redgrave.

Together, they have come up with a film that dares question the scheme of things without blaming one person or group for the sorry shape it’s in. The unspoken message is, “Don’t just sit there doing nothing. Wake up, make a difference. There’s lots of work to do!”

Redgrave, Jolie and Nero are doing their part. They hope that, after seeing their film, you will, too.