As I am sure most of you know, film director Cassie Jaye is a week into a 30 day Kickstarter. She is trying to raise the $97k she needs to finish work on the film, The Red Pill. ‘
Watching this happen has put me in somewhat of a quandary for a couple of reasons. One, I can’t endorse a movie I have not seen, nor can I assure anyone that the actual outcome of the film will be anything like the quite moving and unprecedented 8 minutes of extended preview she has already provided. To be even more frank I don’t care if Ms Jaye’s film is not particularly complementary toward us: a film that is equal-handed would be a vast improvement on past so-called “coverage” of the MHRM by the main stream media.
What matters most is having the conversation, and opening the public’s minds to the possibility that MHRAs, and men in general, are not the monsters we are so often made out to be. Personally, I take “equal-handed” is all we have ever needed. In the “us vs them” game, “us” wins this hands down.
Also, I am wary of this movie taking a credibility hit because those who don’t want to see it made will surely start the attacks on the project as a “puppet for MHRAs” should it start looking like she will raise the money.
Of course, I can tell you that is not true. Fact is, at this point I can’t say with any real conviction that I think we are going to not be subjected to a lot of the same old hollow attacks in this movie, should it be finished and released.
What I can tell you is that when Cassie Jaye says in her fundraising video that she is trying to produce a movie that fairly puts all views on the table about gender politics, I believe her. And I believe that this movie is possibly the last chance we will see in a long time for an objective and balanced view of our movement and of modern feminism from an award winning filmmaker.
For those who may be concerned that I suffer any lapse in memory, I assure you I have not lost sight of the mainstream media agents who have lined up around the corner for the past several years, all of them with sugar and spice façades. All of them claiming to want to educate people about the MHRM, only to turn around and repurpose all that supposed fairness into the most vicious and libelous of attacks.
I still think Ms. Jaye has the promise of being something other than a fraud and a liar. I think she may just be a documentarian with a spine and some character who may have been truly moved to look beyond the agitprop during months of meeting face to face with actual activists.
For that reason, I think this is a project worth your support if you have it to give. She has raised a little over 13k as of this writing, leaving quite a way to go in three short weeks.
If you want to help, you can do so here.
