The Red Pill

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Movie
Original title The Red Pill
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2016
length 117 minutes
Rod
Director Cassie Jaye
production Evan Davis, Cassie Jaye, Nena Jaye, Anna Laclergue
camera Cassie Jaye, Nena Jaye, Elliot Holland, Teryl Brouillette, Steve Brulé

The Red Pill is the title of a Cassie Jaye- directed documentary about the men's rights movement in the United States , which premiered on October 7, 2016 in New York City . On March 7, 2017, the film was released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Gravitas Ventures .

content

The film is about the research of filmmaker Jaye, who introduces herself as a feminist , about the men's rights movement (MRM) , which she initially perceives as a group driven by hatred. The documentation shows her researching the concerns and views of this movement and interviewing representatives of the movement as well as other people. As the film progresses, she revises the perspective she assumed at the beginning.

The film highlights various areas in which men and boys are at a disadvantage, such as higher suicide rates , higher death rates in the workplace , disadvantages in family courts and adoption law, and a lack of support for domestic violence caused by the spouse. Protests by feminists who disrupt or prevent conferences and actions by the men's rights movement are also documented.

Jaye interviews with representatives of the movement including Paul Elam, founder of A Voice for Men , Harry Crouch, president of the National Coalition for Men , and Warren Farrell , author and prominent supporter of the movement. Furthermore Erin Pizzey , founder of the first women's shelter in the UK, Katherine Spillar, editor of the magazine Ms. , and the sociologist Michael Kimmel interviewed.

The film ends with Jayes saying that she no longer wants to call herself a feminist. In her opinion, feminism is not a movement for gender equality, including men's issues, but only appears to be there for women's issues.

background

Naming

The title of the film refers to a popular scene from the feature film Matrix , in which taking a “red pill” is a metaphor for realizing the painful truth of reality. In the film, the red pill stands for the views of the MRM, while a “blue pill” symbolizes feminism. Jaye herself stated that she came across this metaphor, borrowed from the Matrix , early on in the course of her research , because members of men's rights organizations often used it to describe the moment of their discovery. The group “A Voice for Men” even had the slogan “Take the red pill” in its logo at times. At the same time, the name The Red Pill is also borne by a subreddit in which anti-feminist and misogynist views are represented. According to Jaye, the film title did not refer to this group, but to its original use in popular culture. Another reference to the matrix is the rabbit hole ("rabbit hole"), which appears there with reference to Alice in Wonderland . Jaye used this metaphor in a movie poster on Kickstarter in the phrase "Down the rabbit hole of gender politics", and it was also repeatedly taken up in the reception.

financing

According to Jaye, she initially financed the film with her own funds and with money from her mother, who appears as a co-producer, and from her brother. Since she was not able to find donors, enabled it to make a their view neutral film about the men's rights movement, they launched a Kickstarter campaign, the more than 200,000 US dollars earned and the funding target exceeded by twice. Jaye promised her supporters to provide a neutral account and later stated that most of the supporters were neither women nor men rights activists, but had donated for other motives, such as the defense of freedom of speech . The fact that men's rights activists also took part in the campaign aroused criticism because of a possible conflict of interest . For example, Milo Yiannopoulos had published an appeal on the Breitbart News Network website to subscribe for the Kickstarter campaign. MRM backer Michael Cernovich gave $ 10,000 in exchange for the Kickstarter reward for being named as the movie's Associate Producer. The men's rights movement feared that the documentation, being shot by a person outside the movement, would not adequately portray the views of the men's rights movement.

Awards

The Red Pill won three awards at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema in 2017 : “Best of Festival”, “Excellence in Directing Documentary” and “Excellence in Producing a Documentary”. He also received the DigiFest Women in Film Award from the Digital Hollywood Conference and the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at the Louisiana International Film Festival.

Feminist protests

Some planned screenings of the film had to be canceled because of violent protests by feminists beforehand . The film has been accused of being "misogynist propaganda " and justifying sexual violence. Performances at the Palace Cinema in Melbourne , the Mayfair Theater in Ottawa, as well as the University of Calgary and the University of Sydney had to be canceled . According to The Sydney Morning Herald's Australian journalist Annabel Crabb , the allegation that the film justifies sexual violence is baseless. None of the interviewees was asked about sexual violence and thus it was not justified. She described the campaign against the film as "an absurdity that only modern public relations and online activism could create". You give the film exactly the advertising that it needed.

Movie reviews

The reviews from Rotten Tomatoes are mixed. The approval rating among the recorded reviews is 33%. The Metacritic platform does not provide an average value for The Red Pill due to the lack of sufficiently qualified reviews. The film is rated 8.4 out of 10 on the Internet Movie Database

Cathy Young described the film in the American-British online magazine Heat Street as worth seeing and praised it for addressing problems that are rarely brought to the public. One point of criticism, however, is that the film does not address the sometimes misogynistic rhetoric of the men's rights movement. Corrine Barraclough of Australia's The Daily Telegraph also recommended the film because it was “informative” and “powerful” and addressed important problems. She was amazed at the hatred that feminists felt towards the film. The message of the film is mercy. Jessica Clark of the Australian online women's magazine Mamamia described The Red Pill as "the most important film that I have seen with my husband". Through the film, she realized for the first time that men also struggle with traditional gender roles , such as the role of breadwinner. Although the film leaves some questions unanswered, it stimulates dialogue and is therefore definitely worth watching.

The film critic of the weekly newspaper The Village Voice , Alan Scherstuhl, criticized the fact that the director had not confronted the male rights activists she interviewed, such as Paul Elam, with their public statements, for example about rape trials, as a serious documentary should. It is undeniable that there is also injustice against men. Neither the filmmaker nor the interviewees are able to point out a systematic disadvantage of men. Instead, the "vague specter of feminism" is made responsible for everything. The Los Angeles Times also rated the film critically , as it widened the gap between women's and men's rights activists with its "one-sided, uncritical portrayal". Annabel Crabb criticized the film in The Sydney Morning Herald as journalistically weak. Although Jaye cites the topic of sexual violence as the trigger for the research, she does not ask any of her interviewees on the subject.

The film magazine The Hollywood Reporter had mixed reactions to the film. Jaye's openness and objectivity in the creation of the film were praised. However, due to the lack of dealing with the sometimes extreme positions and the crude language used within the group, the film was rejected from the outset by opponents of the MRM who could have won something from the film.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Benjamin Lee: Feminist film-maker criticized for making 'balanced' men's rights documentary. The Guardian , November 11, 2015, accessed June 7, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Catherine Scott: Meet the feminist who is making a film about the men's rights movement. The Daily Dot, November 10, 2015, accessed June 7, 2017 .
  3. ^ John Bard: Feminist Filmmaker Cassie Jaye's 'The Red Pill' Examines Enigmatic And Isolated World of Men's Rights Movement. inquisitr, May 16, 2017, accessed June 7, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Chloe Chaplain: Feminist filmmaker Cassie Jaye: women's rights have gone too far are now silencing men. Evening Standard , December 1, 2016, accessed June 7, 2017 .
  5. ↑ a b Nick Arnold: How this feminist found herself sympathizing with the men's rights movement. British Broadcasting Corporation , accessed June 7, 2017 .
  6. ↑ a b What makes a feminist create a film on MRAs? In: The Daily Dot . November 10, 2015 ( dailydot.com [accessed June 5, 2017]).
  7. ↑ http://theredpillmovie.com/press/
  8. ↑ Welcome to the Red Pill: The angry men's rights group that 'knows what women want' . In: The Telegraph . ( telegraph.co.uk [accessed June 7, 2017]).
  9. ↑ http://theredpillmovie.com/press/
  10. ↑ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cassiejaye/the-red-pill-a-documentary-film?lang=de
  11. ^ New Film 'The Red Pill' Asks Whether Men's Rights Activists Have a Point . In: Heat Street . October 20, 2016 ( heatst.com [accessed June 5, 2017]). ; see also Milo Yiannopoulos: 'The Red Pill' Filmmaker Started to Doubt Her Feminist Beliefs… Now Her Movie Is at Risk . Breitbart, October 26, 2015. Online.
  12. ↑ a b New Film 'The Red Pill' Asks Whether Men's Rights Activists Have a Point . In: Heat Street . October 20, 2016 ( heatst.com [accessed June 5, 2017]).
  13. ↑ Bay Area filmmaker's new film, 'The Red Pill,' is a bitter one for feminists to swallow. Retrieved June 5, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Awards - IIFC 2017 . Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema . Retrieved May 7, 2017.
  15. ^ Marshall Smith: IIFC awards ceremony takes place before packed house . In: Idyllwild Town Crier . January 18, 2017. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
  16. ^ Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 7, 2017 .
  17. ^ The Red Pill: Awards. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 14, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Elle Hunt: The Red Pill: Melbourne cinema drops men's rights film after feminist backlash . In: The Guardian . October 26, 2016, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed June 5, 2017]).
  19. ↑ Union Stops Woman Screeing Woman's Film. Says Bad For Women . In: Herald Sun . ( com.au [accessed June 5, 2017]).
  20. ↑ Red Pill director says men's rights issues being drowned out by mudslinging . In: CBC News . ( cbc.ca [accessed June 5, 2017]).
  21. ↑ a b c Annabel Crabb: The Red Pill ban: an absurdity only online activism could create . In: The Sydney Morning Herald . April 22, 2017 ( com.au [accessed June 5, 2017]).
  22. ↑ The Red Pill. Rotten Tomatoes, accessed October 1, 2017 .
  23. ↑ metacritic ; see also Metacritic FAQ: What does "tbd" mean?
  24. ↑ [1] ; IMDB
  25. ^ Corrine Barraclough: Feminists, you're wrong. The Red Pill is not a hateful film. The Daily Telegraph , October 4, 2016, accessed June 5, 2017 .
  26. ↑ 'The most important movie I watched with my husband was also the most unexpected.' In: Mamamia . June 22, 2017 ( com.au [accessed June 22, 2017]).
  27. ↑ Warning: You Can't Unsee 'The Red Pill,' the Documentary About a Filmmaker Who Learns to Love MRAs. The Village Voice , accessed June 5, 2017 .
  28. ↑ 'The Red Pill' only makes worse the divide between men's and women's rights activists . In: Los Angeles Times . October 13, 2016, ISSN  0458-3035 ( latimes.com [accessed June 5, 2017]).
  29. ↑ 'The Red Pill': Film Review . In: The Hollywood Reporter . ( hollywoodreporter.com [accessed October 1, 2017]).