We Will Not Speak It

Powerful and needs to said.

your pod reminds me that my country is probably the only one in which the presidnet is indicted on rape and sexual harassment charges. I am ashamed.

i invite you to watch our first pod
adrian

excellent.

Powerful piece, nice work, these are words that must be spoken.

Very powerful piece. You did a very good job.

Very well done. It is a real talent to get people to open up while the camera is rolling. You obviously brought a sense of comfort to what can be a sterile process. Great Job on a subject that should get more attention.

Very uncomfortable topic. I'm not surprised people find it difficult to discuss.

Your cuts between the survivor's story and the larger picture from advocates and professionals are exceptional. I agree that it might need a little tightening up. And by that I mean snipping a few seconds here and there where we hear there is an interviewer, but can't actually hear what is being asked. Perhaps this is more of a sound issue as someone above mentioned. And perhaps you have a reason for leaving bits like that in.

I did not get a sense of any "us versus them" in your piece, so perhaps this is something that is subjective depending on the viewer's outlook.

Regardless, kudos on a film well done and for presenting a topic that is often glossed over and minimized.

Wow. I wish more people would speak out about this...very touching.

Please check out my piece "Talon the Warlord: IT Specialist":
link was part of the IDC competition.

This was an excellent film and was very powerful. I applaud you for putting it together and getting the word out!

This was a beautiful piece, Jenny/Joe. It's much easier to sweep something like this under the rug than confront it, and for that I salute you.

This is an excellent piece on a tough and emotional subject matter.
Pointing out the victimization of the victims and the explanation of why, is important for all for us to take a look at. Efficient approach to educate in a short period of time on a vast subject matter. The qualified professionals was essential and added credibility to this piece.

"Why do we tolerate such a high level of sexual assault and sexual abuse in our culture?"
Powerful statement by a qualified professional in the piece.

Nice work.

Powerful Film. Interesting that this film is actually an anti-tolerance film. Most of the pieces I have seen thus far in SOT deal with lack of tolerance. This one deals with too much tolerance for sexual abuse. I imagine that many people would rather accusations of sexual abuse to just go away, as opposed to seeking justice, especially when it is a family freind or relative that has been accused.

Good work. Good luck.
T

4thearticles, thanks for the input--much appreciated.

The statistics came from various studies; the numbers vary from study-to-study. I selected the numbers that my experts seemed to most closely come to a consensus on. The experts agree that the statistics are likely lower in both cases, for men and women alike. They are not based only on reported cases.

Of course, a longer film would more judiciously explore the complexities...

I commend and applaud you on your piece and I think there definitely needs to be a more public dialogue. I appreciate that you're trying to keep the film gender neutral-- but my biggest note is that is doesn't feel very gender neutral. All the speakers are female and there's even some male bashing. By putting in the lead woman's comment about how all men just want gratification and they'll take it however they can, that's really editorializing. I completely understand where she's coming from, but we need women AND men, survivors and non-survivors to come together to talk about a problem that effects females AND males being sexually assualted. It definitely feels a little "us against them" still and I know you're trying to veer away from that. I also don't know where you got your statistics. From multiple sources I've heard and read it's 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 5 boys, not 33 boys. That by the way isn't counting prison sexual assault which actually may make sexual assault of males in the US MORE prevelant than females precentage-wise, in regards to population size.

Just on an editing note, I think the film is dragging a little and could be cut shorter. It's hard to say "make it snappier" when you're talking about such a tough subject, but you want to get maximum impact from the piece and really distill the experience so people can take it all in and remember it as a whole.

An extremely powerful and moving film. Anyone who views it will be better off for the experience.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for this film. The self inflicted silence that follows sexual abuse is heartbreaking, how destructiive it can be to your self. You put together an beautiful film, that reaches to the core of what it means to be abused and understood the heart of a victims shame. You verbalized that which many of us cannot.

I echo the statements above, a well-done and powerful piece.

I certainly don't claim to be well-versed in this topic - in fact, I would probably qualify as your average white male ignoramus on this topic as little as 6 months ago. Thankfully, to my knowledge, nobody very close to me has been a victim of sexual assault, so it was a topic that had not touched my life and therefore not one I had spent much time and effort to consider thoroughly. That changed to some extent earlier this year, when I served on a Grand Jury. One of the cases we saw was a child molestation case in which four girls between the ages of 9 and 17 sat in a room and told me, roughly 22 other grand jurors and strangers, half of whom were male, and a male ADA their stories of being molested more than a year earlier. This was absolutely one of the worst things I have ever had to endure. Worse yet, at the end of our term, we got an update on how some of the cases were progressing. At that time, the oldest girl had been admitted to a mental hospital, and the parents of the other three kids were considering not allowing the kids to testify at trial after the grand jury experience and subsequent hospitalization of the other victim. Obviously, this means the DA will likely have to plea out a very light sentence to the perpetrator involving little, if any, jail time.

Watching this film, I thought it was remarkably well done in touching on the many different ways sexual assault can and does affect the victim in only 9 minutes. I will definitely tune in if/when this is expanded or another film is produced to be even more comprehensive.

Thank you for making this.

I agree that this is a well-done piece. It astounds me that the woman's father refused (?) to believe her story.

I also agree with the above poster that the nature of the issue is too complex to fit within the time allowance. Since the backstory of the woman is compelling enough to stretch the piece with solid, interesting detail, it would be a good idea to roll it up a bit more.

Well done.

Very powerful and moving piece. This topic is an important one that has likely touched the lives of anyone who views this. What struck me most was the comment by the brave young woman featured in the film that the perpetrators only care if they get caught. They have no concept of the depth of pain and anguish their actions are causing in those who they victimize. Sadly, the victims are robbed of a piece of themselves.

I have seen the destruction sexual violence can cause. This cannot continue to be something we whisper about. Our children need to know that they can never be at fault in these situations and that the full responsibility falls on the adult. This needs be understood clearly by them.

Bravo to the makers of this film and I sincerely hope this leads to a more extensive documentary in the future.

DIRECTOR'S NOTE: I was trying to keep it gender neutral in this version, just to open the dialogue--to speak to the problem of sexual violence as a universal problem that affects both men and women, because it is. In 9 minutes we can only touch upon the complexities.

In terms of numbers, more women are affected--but it’s not a contest, and we can’t view it as such if we hope to ever resolve the problem. This is EVERYBODY’S problem, community to community; it crosses race, gender, religion, and class lines, and if we hope to defeat it, we’re going to have to, too.

A note about the construction of the piece: The experts remain gender neutral almost exclusively throughout the piece. As it progresses, the piece itself does lean towards woman victims, as the survivor in my piece is a woman, and she was assaulted, in both cases, by a man.

This is a very well done piece (as an aside, I noticed fluxuation in volume depending on whom was speaking at the time). In a longer piece, I would like to see an additional emphasis on how the problem of sexual assault is not just a problem for women in a patriarchal society, specifically as seen through the lens of sexuality, but for men as well.

The masculine paradigm in sexuality leads to even greater amount of under reporting of sexual assault perpetrated upon men in American society. The traditional roles of sexuality for men lead to under reporting due to homophobia (in the case of male on male sexual assault) or the traditional societal norms that would view a man who reports sexual assaults as weak. This can be seen in direct correlation to the statistically significant correlation between the greater percentages of unreported male domestic abuse.

Obviously due to the limited time frame and the gender of the survivor these topics were not well suited for this piece. Given the limited space, this was an outstanding piece and I highly recommend it. If the opportunity arises for an extended edition that would incorporate the above I would not hesitate to watch such a production.