A documentary about the circumstances during a party at a University of Florida fraternity that led up to what may or may not have been a rape. Interspersed with actual footage shot by the fraternity brothers on the night of the incident, including the sexual acts. This video led to the police not pressing charges and the involvement of NOW, and eventually led to the fraternity getting kicked off campus.
Essential viewing for those who will never watch it. I can’t help but think of the associated issues that have only exponentially increased in the last 20 years with the rise of digital accessibility
Another documentary that makes me hate humanity that little bit more. What a deplorable bunch of slimy fuckers.
Still, I do enjoy docs about scumbags.
Obvious huge content warning on this one, though the director's decisions are far less morally dubious than I had assumed they would be. This is probably one of the best documentaries I've ever seen, actually somewhat ambiguous as to its conclusions with no underlying agenda re: indicting individuals (although I have very strong opinions about what went down - the victim is absolutely not a liar, even if her recollections of some events are fuzzy), instead more interested in exploring cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias. Gotta appreciate the director's hustle, harassing govt./state officials who refused to comment too - a kind of more pointed Broomfield-lite. Extremely worth a look if you can stomach the content.
My curiosity was sky high when this film sold at Sundance back in 2001. But after it languished in release hell for a couple years over what might've been creative differences with distributor Artisan (according to the filmmakers) or song rights issues (according to Artisan), I kind of forgot it existed. Several years later, it jumped back into my mind and a quick Google search showed me the filmmakers re-acquired the rights to their movie and were selling the DVD on their website. I bought it. And then I let it sit for years in a pile of movies I couldn't bring myself to watch because of the topic. Make no mistake, "Raw Deal" is a gut-wrenching and graphic recount…
Ugh. I don't know what else to say about this film than TRIGGER WARNING. It includes video footage of a sexual assault, which of course makes it incredibly difficult to watch. If the woman involved had not participated in the documentary, ethically, there is no way I would be willing to watch this. Since she did, I feel like she wanted her story told. I watched it again because it's been years since I've seen it, and I wanted to see if it was as horrible as I remembered. It was. Again, why am I doing this to myself? I seriously don't know.
"I thought the cops were just being stupid. Cops are not that well-educated oftentimes." [not EXACTLY accurate in context because (at least) one of the cops involved in this case is the epitome of pure evil, but still]
Humanity at its worst. So yeah, it's Florida.Remember when this documentary was pissing everyone off for a good week or two back in the day? Billy Corben's low budget documentary about a night gone bad at a frat party can be a tough and uncomfortable watch at times but it is also one of the more fascinating documentaries you will see. Not one character feels trustworthy and Corben's great use of editing has you constantly questioning what you are hearing and seeing again and again. This is some great and dark stuff. Sidenote: I had forgotten about this once scandalous documentary until Louis Theroux named it as one of his favorite documentaries.
