The Art of Power: An exploration of class and gender

Lately I have been on an independent film kick. Although, I think it’s important to stay in tune with films that end up reaching millions, I also think that it’s necessary to discuss films with less exposure that raise important questions about race, class and gender. This is why The Art of Power a film that recently premiered in Detroit, Michigan caught my eye. Full Disclosure: I have also previously done some freelance work for the music sector of the company that produced the film. While the film and music sector are different entities within First Element Entertainment, just figured I’d put that out there.

Beyond any ties I have to the company, the storyline is provocative: An interracial couple work together to seek vengeance against a senator who has raped one of their loved ones. While the project of holding an aggressor accountable for rape comes later in the film, The Art of Power‘s strongest showing is it’s analysis of class in America. The survivor, Sienna, is an escort who is involved in the business to pay the increase in her college tuition. The main character Wesley, a biracial man who is one-half of the interracial couple, struggles to pay his increased co-pay for medicine at his local pharmacy. As the plot unfolds, these economic circumstance force them to make illegal choices that they otherwise would not have made.

Spliced in between these scenes are conversations between elected officials where the plight of the disadvantaged is reduced to a game of vote trading. The film seems to draw the conclusion that some representatives struggle to be truly compassionate about the people they represent when playing the game of reaching the magical political number to pass legislation. What is particularly refreshing about this film is that young people adorn these scenes and the viewer is forced to empathize with the economic challenges faced by a modern, younger demographic. Sienna works as a waitress/college student in training to be a teacher and Wes works as an IT consultant. In an economic climate where the gendered conversation on the recession largely focuses on mothers, The Art of Power‘s tour through the challenges faced by Sienna demonstrates how gender and class can interface to create tough choices for the seemingly privileged, childless female college student.

Another thing I appreciated about the film from a gender perspective is that it makes a conscious effort to present the endless debates on sex work in complex terms. While Sienna’s character shows the economic duress side of the debate, Alexis, Wes’s girlfriend and Sienna’s close friend, is someone who has entered into the profession with considerably more agency. However, it is important to note that Sienna is later revealed to be a woman of color and Alexis is white. This racial dynamic may explain the agency differential experienced between these women.

Despite all of the important class analysis, there were a few areas of the film that needed improvement. The Art of War is a text that is often referenced in the film and as someone who hadn’t read it, it was difficult to connect the quotes used to the arc of the larger story. Additionally, while the film makes an attempt to grapple with the categories of class and gender, conversations on race are largely left untouched even though an interracial couple is center stage and the movie’s setting is in Washington, DC, a district that is also known as chocolate city for it’s high African American population.
All in all, in an environment where sex workers are increasingly the prey of murderers who do not think they will be missed by society and where Eliot Spitzer’s resurrection into the public eye as a host on CNN is forthcoming, the storyline is highly relevant to these times. This is because the film concludes that the lives of sex workers are valuable to their families and friends and that men who abuse their sexual power, regardless of their elected status, cannot get away with it.