The film community in Austin, Texas, as well as the wider community online, has been shaken to its core in the past few weeks. First with the whole Devin Faraci bullshit and how Tim League and Drafthouse handled it, and now with Harry Knowles being exposed a serial harasser who’s been terrorizing women for over a decade.
While this quake has been based in Austin, let’s not pretend that this particular hub is the epicenter of this problem. Women have been outsiders in the film business for a long time. While we’ve made inroads, one of the places that women still struggle in terms of numbers and respect is in criticism.
What we’ve seen over the last couple weeks is women finally saying enough, both in Texas and in LA at Cinefamily.
It took one woman to start the ball rolling and now what we are seeing is an avalanche. These guys don’t harass or assault one woman. It’s never an isolated incident. They get away with this kind of behavior and no one holds them accountable. And the cycle continues. We have seen denials when it was one or two accusations, but when there are three or four, denying the facts becomes more difficult.
The good news is that women are not staying silent and people cannot operate with impunity any longer. It’s time for a reckoning.
There are many other men in film criticism everybody knows to avoid that haven’t been mentioned by name in the past couple of weeks. Men that you shouldn’t get into a fight with or piss off because it’s not safe, because you know they will come after you — and sic their trolls to do the same. These people make their living by getting ads from studios and films on their sites. Knowles used to be one of those guys. He exerted power and people let him get away with unacceptable behavior. But let’s not pretend he is the only one or that this problem will be solved because he is being forced to deal with consequences. So many others haven’t had to answer for their own misogyny — not yet, anyway.
Over the years I’ve heard countless stories and have had some deeply uncomfortable online experiences myself. There have been many times where I found it downright frightening to write or tweet something, a feeling in the pit of my stomach that this could come back at me. So sometimes I haven’t gotten into things because I was scared, especially since I’m someone who operates independently without any corporate backup.
I’m so impressed with the women who have stood up and said no more. It’s on all of us to make a difference. I can be less afraid. Others with money and power can and should stop enabling this type of behavior, because if they don’t, they are absolutely guilty for being complicit and perpetuating this abuse.
