“Netflix and Critically Think about Sexual Violence”
What to Watch During Sexual Assault Awareness Month
By Michalene Perry and Tanya Rawal-Jindia
One of the goals of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) is to make a commitment to learning more about one of the most pervasive public health issues to plague our globe: sexual violence.
Watching documentaries, films, and series that highlight survivors and the impact of sexual violence on their lives can help viewers in:
- building understanding, empathy, and compassion towards survivors
- thinking of ways to better support survivors
- engaging in thoughtful conversation to bring awareness to sexual violence
- developing tools to prevent violence from happening in the first place
Here is your 2022 watchlist from STAR
- Delhi Crime (2019)
Directed by Richie Mehta
Delhi Crime is based on true events; this series is a police procedural about the 2012 Delhi gang rape which left a young woman raped, beaten, tortured and murdered and her male friend brutally beaten. The haunting series brings attention to the complexities and emotional toll of this case and its impact on South Delhi. The series primarily focuses on the aftermath of the crime, following Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Vartika Chaturvedi, who is tasked to find the assailants responsible for this violent crime.
2. Promising Young Woman (2020)
Directed by Emerald Fennell
Promising Young Woman is a black comedy thriller film written, co-produced, and directed by Emerald Fennell in her feature directorial debut. Out to seek retribution for the rape and subsequent suicide of her childhood friend, Cassie Thomas (Carrie Mulligan) — a former star medical student — creates a clever scheme to put sexual predators in their place: she acts drunk in bars and when someone offers to take care of her and take her home, the perpetrator gets blindsided by Carrie’s fierce and sometimes violent response. The stakes get higher for Carrie when she faces her friend’s rapist head on, alone in the woods.
3. I May Destroy You (2020)
Directed by Sam Miller and Michaela Cole
I May Destroy You is a British black comedy-drama television limited series set in London with a predominantly Black British cast. Coel, who created, wrote, co-directed, and executive produced the series, stars as Arabella, a young writer in the public eye who seeks to rebuild her life after being raped. The show has won numerous awards, including the BAFTAs for Best Mini-Series, Best Director: Drama, Best Writer: Drama and Best Actress, in addition to two RTS Programme Awards, two Independent Spirit Awards, a Gotham Award, a GLAAD Media Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Peabody Award.
4. The Diary of a Rape Trial (2018)
Directed by Kelly Showker
The Diary of a Rape Trial is a powerful documentary following one woman’s search for justice after being sexually assaulted. Mandi Gray turns to activism and provokes a national debate surrounding the treatment of victims by the Canadian legal system. The film examines what it is like to report rape and different options for survivors.
5. Bordertown (2007)
Produced by Jennifer Lopez; Directed by Gregory Nava
Bordertown is based on the true events surrounding the multiple murders of young women in Juárez, Chihuahua. Two men brutally rape a young woman, Eva Jimenez (Maya Zapata) and leave her for dead. She wakes up in and crawls out of her own grave. An American journalist, Lauren Adrian (Jennifer Lopez), is assigned to cover the story of the murders in Juárez. Lauren — haunted by terrible memories of her own — finds Eva, the only surviving victim and is determined to catch Eva’s rapist. Then, with the help of Eva and Mexican newspaper editor Alfonso Diaz (Antonio Banderas), Lauren disguises herself as a Mexican worker to identify and trap the rapists.
6. The Weekend Away (2022)
Directed by Kim Farrant
The Weekend Away is a 2022 American thriller film directed by Kim Farrant from a screenplay by Sarah Alderson, based on Alderson’s 2020 novel of the same name. Its story follows a woman named Beth (Leighton Meester), who travels to Croatia for a weekend getaway with her best friend Kate. However, Kate goes missing and Beth is forced to figure out what happened to her.
7. Stateless (2020)
Created by Cate Blanchett; Directed by Emma Freeman, Jocelyn Moorhouse
Stateless centers on four strangers in an immigration detention center in the Australian desert: an airline hostess escaping a suburban cult, an Afghan refugee fleeing persecution, a young Australian father escaping a dead-end job and a bureaucrat caught up in a national scandal. When their lives intersect they are pushed to the brink of sanity, yet unlikely and profound emotional connections are made amongst the group.
8. Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich (2020)
Directed by Lisa Bryant
Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich examines how a wealthy and well-connected financier got away with crimes of sexual abuse and sex trafficking for decades. But just as crucially, it provides a space for his survivors to share their own stories. The series documents how accusations of sexual abuse followed Epstein for years before law enforcement took action. Although rumors and allegations swirled, it wasn’t until he was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges that his crimes became more widely known. The arrest was based on allegations that he had paid young girls, some of whom were underage, for sex and used them to recruit others dating back to 2002, according to a criminal indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court last year.
9. The Rape of Recy Taylor (2018)
Directed by Nancy Buirski
The Rape of Recy Taylor tells the story of Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, who was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice. This film exposes a legacy of physical abuse of black women and reveals Rosa Parks’ intimate role in Recy Taylor’s story. An attempted rape against Parks was but one inspiration for her ongoing work to find justice for countless women like Taylor. The 1955 bus boycott was an end result, not a beginning.
10. “I Am Vanessa” 20/20, Season 43, Episode 36
I Am Vanessa, a 20/20 episode, centers on Vanessa Guillen who was a 20-year-old U.S. Army soldier who was murdered on April 22, 2020, inside a Fort Hood, Texas, armory by another enlisted soldier, Aaron David Robinson. This episode focuses on Guillen’s family who sought help from the public and their Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia. The family then hired a lawyer and began to get attention from across the country to seek justice for their slain daughter.
