Doc Stars of the Month: Trinea Gonczar & Amanda Thomashow, 'At the Heart of Gold’

Erin Lee Carr (Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop; Mommy Dead and Dearest) has built an impressive career turning ripped-from-the-headlines stories (she is the daughter of late media icon David Carr, after all) featuring society’s “monsters” into sober reflections on society itself. So perhaps it was only a matter of time before the deft documentarian decided to tackle one of the most outrageous scandals in recent memory: the aiding and abetting of pedophile doctor Larry Nassar over decades by Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics and the organization’s Olympian-making affiliates (including superstar coaching couple Bela and Martha Karolyi).
 
For as horrific as Nassar’s behavior was — hundreds of girls and young women subject to sexual abuse in the guise of medical “treatments” for years on end — there was the equally appalling reaction of the adults surrounding him, who refused to believe those who did have the courage to speak up. Indeed, one of the most chilling aspects of this whole sordid mess was the systemic “gaslighting,” as one former gymnast described it, of the kids who chose to come forward. Adults who didn’t want to face the truth simply told the adolescent victims that the molestation that was happening wasn’t actually happening, which the girls then often accepted — only to find out years later, once Nassar was revealed as a serial predator, that what they were comfortingly assured was reality wasn’t actually reality. In other words, a matrix of crimes — physical, psychological and emotional — by a multitude of culprits ultimately occurred.

To untangle the thorny drama, Documentary turned to two heroic women — Trinea Gonczar, a longtime family friend of Nassar’s and one of his earliest victims, and Amanda Thomashow, who filed the first Title IX complaint against him — to discuss everything from the intense coverage surrounding the shocking case to the symbiotic impact of #MeToo.

To read my interview with the remarkable ladies visit Documentary magazine.

Blowin’ Up chronicles harm reduction at the Queens Human Trafficking Intervention Court

“I hate court. I didn’t want to be at court. No one likes court. It’s boring. It’s terrible. It’s chaotic. And having to tell someone they have to do five sessions with me to get an adjournment and contemplation of dismissal, and then have to wait six months for that to happen – like, that’s crazy. But it’s the only possibility, so what are we supposed to do? Just not have the court and just let people get criminal records? And then what?”

Such was the frustrating bureaucracy that Eliza Hook, a former social worker at GEMS (Girls Educational & Mentoring Services), navigated on a daily basis for her sex worker clients at New York City’s Queens Human Intervention Trafficking Court. Headed by a female judge (the Honorable Toko Serita) and the first in the nation to emphasize harm reduction over punishment, it’s a reality Stephanie Wang-Breal captures both artistically and respectfully in Blowin’ Up, her fascinating, fly-on-the-wall portrait of this off-the-radar place where Hook served as a court advocate for close to a decade. So when I got the chance to chat via phone with the fierce film subject a few days before the doc’s theatrical premiere (April 5th in NYC, April 12th in LA), the first thing I wanted to know was whether there was a movement to reform the unjust system itself.

To find out, and read part two of my long and winding interview, visit Global Comment.

Doc Star of the Month: Eliza Hook, 'Blowin' Up'

Stephanie Wang-Breal’s Blowin’ Up — the term that sex workers use for leaving one’s pimp — is a surprising slice of cinema vérité, an artistic and nonjudgmental, years-in-the-making look at New York City’s Queens Human Intervention Trafficking Court. Run by Judge Toko Serita and her all-female team, it’s the first of its kind to emphasize the welfare of sex workers over the criminalization of their trade, addressing the root causes of prostitution while providing alternative solutions (but only if that’s what the arrestee wants).

And one remarkable woman providing that respectful, pressure-free help is Eliza Hook, a social worker at GEMS (Girls Educational & Mentoring Services) and court advocate who fiercely puts her clients above all else — even a film shoot.

Documentary spoke with the tireless advocate a few days before the film’s April 5th premiere in New York (the film opens April 12 in Los Angeles).  This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

To read my interview visit Documentary magazine.

“… When you’re a Niche Filmmaker in a World That’s Not Always as Openminded as You Might Like”: CineKink Artist Spotlight Award Recipient Jennifer Lyon Bell on Her Art Porn Career

This year CineKink NYC will be celebrating its upcoming sweet sixteen edition of the fest (April 3-7) by adding something new: the CineKink Artist Spotlight award. And in town to receive the honor — and premiere her latest Adorn, along with its making-of documentary, as well as host her “From Fantasy to Film: Design Your Own Porn Film” workshop — will be Amsterdam-based Jennifer Lyon Bell, no stranger to the kinky fest. Indeed, Bell has been screening her work at CineKink since 2006, racking up awards while making connections she cites as integral to her longevity in a notoriously difficult industry.

Filmmaker caught up with Bell to find out how exactly a feminist pornographer stays afloat in an age of social media platform crackdowns and trendy “intimacy coordinators.”

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

“Sex-Positive and Non-Exploitative, with a Big Piece of Questioning who is getting Representation”: Lisa Vandever on Celebrating CineKink NYC’s Sweet Sixteen

For the past 16 years CineKink NYC co-founder and director Lisa Vandever has been on a mission to not only showcase the best in sex-positive films — from narrative to nonfiction, features to shorts, high camp to deep drama — but also support their brave indie creators (who are very rarely straight white males). To that end, the upcoming edition (April 3-7) will see its first CineKink Artist Spotlight award bestowed on feminist pornographer Jennifer Lyon Bell, whose erotic work Vandever has been continuously championing since 2006.

Filmmaker was fortunate that Vandever found time for a brief chat in the midst of frenzied last-minute preparations a few days prior to opening night.

To read my interview visit Filmmaker magazine.

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.