Doc Star of the Month: Alexandria Goddard, 'Roll Red Roll'

Years before the #MeToo movement galvanized women around the world, the sexual assault in 2012 of an incapacitated teenager by members of the Steubenville High School football team set the international media ablaze. Sparking the firestorm was Alexandria Goddard, a crime blogger originally from the Ohio town. Fully aware of the centrality of Big Red football to the city’s identity, Goddard nevertheless methodically collected and pieced together social media evidence of the rape. Then she used her blog Prinniefied.com to blow the whistle on the assailants (who’d seemed determined to live up to the dumb jock stereotype, having callously and idiotically documented the commission of a felony via Facebook, Twitter, text messages and smartphone recordings).

More recently, Goddard has found herself being profiled, as one of the main characters of Nancy Schwartzman’s Roll Red Roll. The doc revisits both the saga and the important questions it raised around cyberbullying, victim blaming, adult complicity and rape culture itself.

Documentary was lucky enough to catch up with the activist sleuth prior to the film’s US theatrical premiere on March 22 at New York City’s Film Forum.

To read my interview visit Documentary magazine.

“I Wanted Men to Engage with the Subject of Sexual Violence….”: Nancy Schwartzman on Roll Red Roll

Since Nancy Schwartzman’s filmography includes the short docs The Line, which explores sexual boundaries and consent, and xoxosms, a love story revolving around teens and tech, it’s obvious that the rape of a teenage girl by members of Ohio’s celebrated Steubenville High School football team back in 2012 would grab this director-producer-media-strategist’s attention. After all, the assault had been documented through Facebook, Twitter, text messaging, and even cell phone recordings by the assailants, and it was subsequently brought to the world’s attention by a female crime blogger. Now, nearly seven years after the crime, Schwartzman takes a deeper look, revisiting and deconstructing the case in a feature documentary, Roll Red Roll, which opens at Film Forum on March 22nd.

Filmmaker was fortunate to catch up with the activist and documentarian, who is also an award-winning app designer, prior to the release to learn more about exposing the modern-day collision of rape culture and cyber bullying.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.