Women’s representation in media is actually growing worse, not better, and women still comprise a fraction of directors off-screen. Unsurprisingly, some of the more feminist media we’ve seen in recent years – Tropes vs. Women, Veronica Mars and Hunting Ground – have been funded through alternative means or produced independently, to avoid creative interference by misogynistic studio suits. In this post, I interview one woman who’s ended up using the crowdfunding model to work on her upcoming Slut: A Documentary Film.
Last time Emily and I spoke, we talked about her thoughts on illustrating or animating women’s stories of trauma, without being graphic or triggering. But I was also curious about how she managed to pull together funding for her documentary. No matter how you slice a budget, filmmaking is expensive, something I remember from being a former children’s animator. And did crowdsourcing the film’s funding ultimately influence the film’s production too?
(Spoiler: Yes, because crowdsourcing isn’t just about raising money through Kickstarter.)
Q: You’re not psychic, but this whole project began at an ideal time. Society is at a cultural crossroads right now…
A: Yes, slut-shaming has become such a popular conversation since we started this. I’m just glad the UnSlut Project can be part of that conversation.
Q: No kidding. Few years ago, the media would openly blame pre-teens when they were gang-raped. Now you see students networking across the country, working with politicians who actually consider rape a serious issue, refusing to be silent or nameless…
A: It feels like the conversation is becoming broader. More people are getting involved, and that’s inspiring.
Q: Well, because of people becoming involved through Kickstarter or other means, did the film’s vision change during production? On a studio project, no sane producer would allow conceptual changes after production starts, but for an independent film, sometimes it’s not just allowed but even expected.
A: That’s exactly what happened, yes! When we did the Kickstarter, we didn’t know who we’d speak to. We knew we’d speak to experts, but we didn’t know which women would tell their stories. I’d kind of been in touch with Rehtaeh Parsons’s family, but at that point I hadn’t even thought that we might be able to feature her family, telling their story…
Q: Perhaps the thought crossed your mind, but it felt too idealistic to be worth contemplating?
A: They ended up reaching out to us, said they wanted to be a part of this project. I mean Rehtaeh’s story is what inspired me to share my diary in the first place. In the end it became an obvious “of course we need to do this”, and her story has become a really prominent part of the film…
Q: I know a trial against some of her attackers wrapped last year. But even recently, elements within the Canadian military reportedly tampered with the Wikipedia article about her rape…
A: Ugh, I saw that too. The worst is that they changed a quotation from her father to imply that he didn’t think she was raped. That was awful.
Q: Who else were you able to interview for this project?
A: I guess another recognisable name to a lot of Americans would be Samantha Geimer, who was Roman Polanski’s sexual assault victim when she was 13 in the 1970s. And the same thing happened – she emailed me and said, “My name is Samantha Gailey Geimer, I was a victim of the Roman Polanski sex scandal, and I want to be part of this project somehow. Please give me a call.”
Q: Wow.
A: We ended up making her story a part of the film as well. To answer your prior question, all this happened during production itself. The film really became more than I’d originally envisioned. These stories are points of access for people. Samantha later said to me, “I just hope somebody comes to see this film. Maybe they’ll think about things in a different way when they leave.”
Q: I hate to mention this, but you once told me you remember making movies as a kid before digital tech or iMovie existed…
A: It sure wasn’t digital! I remember the home movies I made were quite choppy and ridiculous. My friends and I would do everything in one take, and if we messed up, we’d rewind the tape and do the take again. When I was in middle school, accessible editing equipment simply didn’t exist…
Q: I ought to strike this anecdote from the record, since you’re dating yourself by saying you know what videotapes are!
A: Still, it was a special time to grow up in. Now, having access to social media and digital technology… well, I wonder often how we’d be fighting rape culture if we didn’t have social media.
Q: Well, Kickstarter, YouTube and digital tech in general have really lowered barriers to entry for feminist creators.
A: And that’s the wonderful thing…
Q: I mean you managed to shoot this film on a Kickstarter budget of what, $20,000 US? That wouldn’t even have paid for the film stock you’d need to shoot a studio documentary, if you had to shoot on film instead of digital!
A: I know! But it goes beyond that, beyond budgets. It’s the people volunteering their time, people who believe in helping to fight rape culture or charging us very low rates… including you.
Q: Oh, right. I’ve done some pro bono press photography for your project, when I’ve been able…
A: It’s not just the budget. I hope this doesn’t sound ridiculously cheesy, but the fact this film is being made at all was because people want it to be made. Right now we have 375 people who gave a dollar or more on Kickstarter. They wanted this film enough to reach into their pockets. Women don’t have to be dependent on a studio giving the green light. We can put in the work, donate whatever they can, and a film like this that can change people’s perceptions about violence can be brought into the world. That wouldn’t have been possible even a decade ago. It hasn’t levelled the playing field, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Q: And screenings?
A: Distribution will be crowdsourced too, so screenings won’t be dependent on anything other than people who want to do a screening being able to convince people in the area that it’s worth seeing with them, and that’s what I think is really cool.
Q: Being dependent on crowdsourcing must be stressful, though. When you were doing the Kickstarter back in 2013, I was totally prepared for the project to miss its funding goal…
A: Oh, I was too! Now that we’re crowdfunding for postproduction, I know that emotional drain already.
Q: One last question. Working on this film has put you in the public eye, bringing with it the usual threats and harassment women face when they use their voices, online or off. Has the harassment you’ve experienced been more or less what you expected? Has any of it really surprised you?
A: I think I’m pretty jaded. I’m not surprised by it on an intellectual level. When I speak with other women who’re active online, we roll our eyes because every woman goes through something similar. Still, every time someone takes a chunk of their day to craft a hateful message to me, it affects me. The messages can be hard to brush off. Sometimes they’re really personal.
Q: Well, you proved the haters wrong when your Kickstarter succeeded. Hope to see your film after postproduction wraps!
Emily is crowdfunding for the final stretch of postproduction for Slut: A Documentary Film. The deadline will be March 6th, so consider donating if it’s within your means!
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