Anti-Rape video directed by Noodles_Leone

[noodles_leone]

So saterday was women's rights day. I was hired by the NGO Mémoire Traumatique et Victimologie (http://memoiretraumatique.org/) to direct a short video about the way rape victims are treated and the impact it has on them. It's in French, and moderately NSFW:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P0dy4wsLNo

More information on the topic on the campaign's website: www.stopaudeni.com

[Groggy]

Good video for a good cause. Nice job Noodles.

[noodles_leone]

Thanks Grog!
I don't know about the effect of the video on people who're not aware of the problem, but rape victims and people who work with them have been very receptive.

A subtitled version is in the work for you english speakers.

[drinkanddestroy]

Can you explain the message of the video? I guess i can wait till i get a subtitled version, but i am just wondering: we're obviously all "anti-rape" (and if we were pro-rape, a video wouldn't change our minds), so what is the message here? What is the exact message about the impact/perception/treatment of rape victims issue that you are trying to rectify?.... And is that girl a real-life rape survivor or an actress?

[cigar joe]

very good 

[noodles_leone]

She's an actress, I wouldn't have shot a reenactment of a real rape and then cut it together with the testimony of a rape victim

You're right, a video against  rape wouldn't be very effective. That's why it's focused on the way people, society and even the judiciary system deal with them afterward. Rape victims ear over and over little phrases that go from "But what were you doing outside after midnight?" to "were you excited during the rape?" when they try to talk about what they experienced. Even the most innocent of them minimize the actions of the rapist as well as the traumatic experience of the victim while the most aggressive ones tend to point out the victim as the one responsible for what happened. Rape victims need support, not bullying, especially not at a point when they're extremely vulnerable.

So that's the message. Now, I'm far from being a specialist on the topic, I cannot argue about it. I've eared their message and I've tried to express it in the video in the most effective way.

[drinkanddestroy]

Did you speak to actual rape victims for research? Or did whoever hire you just tell you, "Here is the message you should be imparting"? .... RE: those who assign guilt to victims for e.g. being out late at nite:  while everyone should obviously be ultra-careful in any situation that involves any sort of danger (like everyone should be a defensive driver), that doesn't excuse the attacker even 1%. However (and this may be related to victims blaming themselves), most rapes are not the stereotypical "ran into a stranger in a dark alley at night." Most rapes involve a victim and attacker who knew each other before the rape occurred. I guess that A) makes a girl less likely to take precautions, against someone she knows; and B) can sort of explain in some crazy way why the victim blames herself, cuz she knew the attacker before the rape, as (what she thought was) a normal person, so maybe after she is raped, she subconsciously thinks, "if he was a regular person, he can't just turn into a monster; must be something I did wrong."

[drinkanddestroy]

(the stat I said about most rapes involving people who knew each other previously is accurate (at least in USA) ), but otherwise, everything I said is totally talking outta my ass. Just sorta guessing. I haven't done any research about rape. (I did know one rape victim; she was very open and talked about it freely; when she was 13, she was raped by 3 men of a certain race, and at the time she told me the story, she was probably around 19, and she said she could still never be with a man of that race. (I don't wanna state the particular race only cuz I think it may distract from the point.)

[noodles_leone]

We didn't directly talk to actual victims when writing the film. However we researched the subject and the NGO gave us testimonies and even transcripts of police interrogatories. Many of the lines in the video are directly inspired if not plain and simply pasted from these documents.

According to what I read on the subject and the numerous comments by actual rape victims we've had after we released the video, you're very true in your assumptions. There are numerous stories of rapes that came out of nowhere, such as a neighbor who knocked at the door and then sexually assaulted the woman. And got away with it. It's hard to apprehend for everyone, including the victim.

[drinkanddestroy]

The stat about the majority of rapes involving people who knew each other is actually a stat I remember from Criminal Law class. (I don't wanna give the exact number cuz I am not certain I remember it, but I BELIEVE it is a very significant majority, maybe around two-thirds or something.) The rest of what I said is assumption. One more stat (don't remember if these stats are from a study done of one particular year or from a multi-year period, but) while like 99% of rapists are male, something like 7 or 9 percent of rape victims are also male (I would guess most male victims are probably underage, you don't hear of many adult males being raped.) And these numbers are RAPE. For every rape that occurs, there are probably many, many more cases of other sex-related offenses, like inappropriate touching.... It's a fucking scary world out there. Unbelievable how many creeps there are..... One study surveyed women who were victim of sexual assault (which includes probably a very broad array of acts) on college campus over a (4-month) semester, and concluded that, when you multiply it over an entire year (which I guess would mean tripling it to achieve 12-months' worth of numbers), that equals a quarter of women on college campuses were victim of some sort of sexual assault. (I would assume, to use that annoying word again, that that means about 8.33% of women were assaulted in the 4 months, tripling that equals 25 percent over 12 months. So theoretically, over a 12 month period, 25% of girls on college campuses are subject to a sexual assault.... These numbers sound crazy, but how many girls actually go through a few years on a college campus without any (drunk?) guy ever doing anything physically inappropriate at least once?.... Make what you will of these numbers, twist them inside and out, turn em over and analyze and do whatever u want, believe them or don't, but the bottom line is that it's a dangerous world, and there are so many victims out there, people each of us knows, though we may not know they are a victim.

[noodles_leone]

The stat about the majority of rapes involving people who knew each other is actually a stat I remember from Criminal Law class. (I don't wanna give the exact number cuz I am not certain I remember it, but I BELIEVE it is a very significant majority, maybe around two-thirds or something.)

I had two thirds in mind too, but the actual number is an impressive 80%, according to the press release that went with the video.

[drinkanddestroy]

I had two thirds in mind too, but the actual number is an impressive 80%, according to the press release that went with the video.

maybe the numbers are different in France and USA. Either way, point is, women have to be as careful of men they know as of walking down a dark street at night and running into a stranger.

[noodles_leone]

And here comes the version with the subtitles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UVVgHbiOYw