Caleb Thornton
Advertising and Distribution Manager
It was not until later years of high school that I noticed the word “rape culture” or heard strong voices start to really rise up against sexual assault of both genders. Now, Netflix offers Audrie & Daisy, an original documentary of two young teenage women who were each sexually abused by a male and filmed.
To some, “documentary” either means interesting in the way of facts but boring in the way of action or some shaky, half-prepared film. This documentary did not meet those standards, but rather rose pretty high above them to put forth a well-created and compelling feature for viewers. It even has some contributing animated parts, especially when showing flashback scenes.
I know for a lot of folks the word “rape” or collectiveness of “sexual abuse” raises the hair on their arms or makes them feel sick to their stomachs – I am the exact same way. In fact, I took as long as I could to wait to watch this film, simply because I was afraid of feeling disgusted or just utterly disappointed/sympathetic.
The documentary does not just go into some sad reel about how terrible sexual assault is, because most of us would hopefully agree with that statement. The film goes into more depth and validates the stories by providing parts of the investigation videos as well as presenting background details from the two families of the women.
In the documentary, the film team looks into the sexual assault cases of Audrie Pott (who was 15 years old at the time) and Daisy Coleman (who was 14 years old at the time). Both young women were caught on camera while under the influence as separate, older males took advantage of their unconscious or otherwise unaware state of mind.
I know stories like Greek or Shakespearean tragedies tug at my feels, but this was real – is real. So that makes these stories different, because it happened to two women worthy of long, unviolated lives. In the documentary, the viewer finds that Audrie Pott attempted suicide because of cyber bullying against her. She succeeded in committing suicide and now her parents and siblings have to go on without her.
I want to make two points about the parts of the documentary viewers should really watch for if they choose to watch this film:
1. The two towns as a whole do not support the women. It is not just that they do not believe/did not believe them, but they called them demeaning names (slut, whore, etc.) and even vandalized Daisy Coleman’s house by breaking a window.
2. A female who went through a similar cataclysm reached out to one of the women the documentary focused on. Strangers can lend a supporting shoulder.
This documentary was absolutely genuine and made me think, and think hard. The film is not a cry for help, nor is a lecture or a shaming technique. It simply brings light to these kinds of situations to enlighten and educate.
Eight out of 10 big, shiny gold stars.
