A lot of social and cultural issues stem from those in power refusing to acknowledge the elephant in the room. In our crowdfunding picks, two documentaries delve into topics that are pretty much ignored by the public: forced confessions and false convictions, as well as the gendered aspect of online harassment. Katrine Philp’s “In the Closed Room” is about a defense lawyer, Jane Fisher-Byrialsen, and her fight to exonerate those who were wrongfully convicted after a coerced confession. “Netizens,” directed by Cynthia Lowen, focuses on several women who are targets of online threats, revenge porn, and cyber stalking. Considering the conversations around “Rectify,” “Amanda Knox,” Gamergate, and the shit Leslie Jones had to deal with for starring in a movie, Philp and Lowen’s films couldn’t be more relevant.
On the narrative side of the crowdfunding coin is “The Sounding,” co-written and directed by Catherine Eaton, about a woman who doesn’t speak until adulthood. When she does use her voice, her language isn’t immediately recognizable and she’s sent to a psychiatric facility. Eaton explores our tendency to sweep anything we don’t understand under the metaphorical rug while providing a feminist allegory: women are fine as long as they are silent.
Finally, writer-director Casey Hartnett recently launched a campaign for “Unplugged,” a web series that delightfully revels in the issues women are supposed to hide (i.e. periods). The show highlights how absurd it is for us — men and women — to be embarrassed or uncomfortable talking about lady problems since more than half of the entire population lives with them every day.
Here are our latest women-centric and created crowdfunding recommendations.
“In the Closed Room” (Documentary) — Directed by Katrine Philp
Perception: If you give the authorities a false confession and are convicted as a result, that’s your own fault.
Reality: False confessions don’t just fall from the sky. Interrogators are trained to get anyone to admit to anything.
Director Katrine Philp and her subject, attorney Jane Fisher-Byrialsen, are determined that the public knows about this discrepancy. It’s tempting to write off coerced confessions as the exception to the rule, but it’s much more common than we’d like to think. According to “In the Closed Room’s” team, the U.S. criminal justice system frequently uses “special techniques to coerce the suspect to confess to a crime.” Even scarier, “often people get sentenced with no other evidence than their own (false) confession.” The documentary follows Fisher-Byrialsen as she counsels and advises three clients who served or are serving time after confessing to crimes they didn’t commit: Korey Wise, Renay Lynch, and Malthe Thomsen. As Philp’s team is quick to point out, Fisher-Byrialsen is David to the justice system’s Goliath, but she “is not the kind of person who lets injustice prevail.”
Help reform our flawed justice system and donate to the documentary’s Kickstarter campaign.
“Netizens” (Documentary) — Directed by Cynthia Lowen
We live in a world where openly having an opinion is controversial. Just ask Jessica Valenti, Kumail Nanjiani, or Amy Schumer. Being on social media + sharing a thought = a potential deluge of threats, insults, and intimidation on Twitter (possibly from the President-elect). And it’s not just limited to public figures anymore.
All women live with the vague fear of sexual violence. And, as long as technology keeps evolving, we’ll have to accept that the internet isn’t a safe space. According to “Netizens” director Cynthia Lowen, “online harassment is silencing women and preventing them from taking part in all that the internet offers.” Whenever a woman is threatened online — no matter how personal or specific the threat is — the general reaction is Whelp, that’s the cost of freedom of speech. It’s nice that Lowen and her team are calling bullshit.
“Netizens” tells the stories of multiple women in the U.S. who have experienced cyber bullying, including “threats of violence, privacy violations, stalking, impersonation, non-consensual pornography, and reputation harm.” Make no mistake, the documentary isn’t using the marketplace of ideas as a way to avoid taking a stance. Its message is clear: you have a right to be online and you have a right to your own opinion. But you don’t have the right to take away someone’s sense of safety just for the sake of being an asshole.
Go to the “Netizens” Kickstarter page to show your solidarity with its subjects and anyone who has experienced online harassment.
“The Sounding” — Co-Written and Directed by Catherine Eaton
“The Sounding” explores otherness “at a time when we desperately need to connect and include the marginalized,” explains its campaign profile. As the film’s synopsis and overview suggest, basic empathy can prevent tragedy. “The Sounding” is about mute Liv (Catherine Eaton), who was raised in near-isolation by her ill grandfather. When she speaks for the first time, her grandfather’s friend is frightened by her foreign linguistics. Liv is immediately committed to a mental hospital where her communication style just brings her more trouble. She’s not ill, but she’s not being understood or listened too, either. And that can definitely make a person doubt her own sanity. Liv doesn’t compromise; she continues to “live her own authentic life” no matter what the cost. Like most women, her voice is simultaneously a weapon and a weakness.
Go to “The Sounding’s” Kickstarter profile to contribute to the film’s post-production budget.
“Unplugged” (Web Series) — Created, Written, and Directed by Casey Hartnett
Do you avoid openly carrying a tampon —no purse, no pockets — when you make a pit stop during your period? Do you whisper when you schedule an eyebrow wax at the office? If you answered yes, you’re ridiculous and you are not alone. Casey Hartnett knows where you’re coming from. Her web series “Unplugged” is all about the so-called shameful issues women face every day. As Hartnett says, “We all experience things-that-must-not-be-named and […] it’s about damn time that humanity understands that it’s okay to talk about these taboo topics!” So there’s no need to pretend UTIs and yeast infections never happen.
Hartnett’s vision for the first season of “Unplugged” is to tell one woman’s story from childhood to middle age. It will trace all of her female troubles in an effort to de-stigmatize what we ladies go through, like those rough, hormonal adolescent years, sex ed, sexual harassment, and what it means to be an adult “who may or may not have figured life out.”
You can support “Unplugged” by checking out its Indiegogo campaign.
To be considered for Women and Hollywood’s biweekly crowdfunding feature, please write to womenandhollywoodinterns@gmail.com. All formats (features, shorts, web series, etc.) welcome. Projects must be by and/or about women.
