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The Red Pill

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The Red Pill
Directed byCassie Jaye
Release date
  • October 7, 2016 (2016-10-07) (United States)
Running time
117 minutes
LanguageEnglish

The Red Pill is a 2016 documentary film by Cassie Jaye exploring the men's rights movement.

Content

The Red Pill chronicles Jaye’s journey beginning as a skeptical feminist investigating what she believes to be a hate movement. She goes on to discover that the movement is different from what she expected and begins to question her own views on gender, power, and privilege. The film discusses numerous issues facing men and boys such as male suicide rates, workplace fatalities and high-risk jobs, false allegations of rape, military conscription, lack of services for male victims of domestic violence and rape, higher rates of violent victimization, issues concerning divorce and child custody, disparity in criminal sentencing, disproportionate funding and research on men's health issues, educational inequality, and men's lack of reproductive rights.[1][2][3][4] It includes numerous interviews with men’s rights activists and those supportive of the movement, most notably Paul Elam,[2] founder of A Voice for Men; Harry Crouch,[2] president of the National Coalition for Men; Warren Farrell,[2] author of The Myth of Male Power; and Erin Pizzey,[2] who started the first domestic violence shelter in the modern world. It also includes interviews with feminists critical of the movement, such as Ms. magazine executive editor Katherine Spillar,[5] and sociologist Michael Kimmel.[3] It also contains excerpts from Jaye’s video diary.

Funding controversy

Director Cassie Jaye initially struggled to find financiers who did not have "an agenda."[6] She mostly encountered people who believed the men's rights movement was a "disease that shouldn't be given a fair hearing."[6] Jaye got the film "off the ground" with her own money as well as money from her mother, a co-producer, and her boyfriend.[3] After it became known that the film would be favoring to the men's rights movement, Jaye was unable to find funding to cover the cost of the movie from traditional sources.[1][7][8] She instead started a campaign on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, which she called a last resort.[6] The Kickstarter project promised to be a "fair and balanced" look at the men's rights movement.[6] The effort was strongly criticized by some feminists and received support from Breitbart News columnist Milo Yiannopoulos.[9][10][11] In the end, the campaign exceeded its goal of $97,000 as well as two stretch goals to raise a total of $211,260.[12]

Alan Scherstuhl's review suggested that many of those providing funding for the film may have themselves been men’s rights activists, thereby creating a conflict of interest.[13] Jaye has said that the suggestion the film was funded by MRAs is "a common lie that keeps spreading."[3] One of the largest pledges to the film was by Mike Cernovich, who pledged $10,000 to the Kickstarter project.[6] In a blog post he stated he was "not funding The Red Pill to help MRAs" but that the film will "help all men, and all women, and all children."[6] Cernovich does not identify as an MRA,[6] and has stated he does not particularly like MRAs.[14] Jaye stated that "our five highest backers ... are neither MRA nor feminist. I would say three out of five of them didn’t even know about the men's rights movement, but wanted to defend free speech."[6] She also stated that the film's backers and producers would have no influence or control of the film.[3][6]

Release

The Red Pill had its world premiere on October 7, 2016 at Cinema Village in New York City. It played there for a week before opening in Los Angeles on October 14, 2016. One-time screenings were also scheduled at various locations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

Screening cancellations

The Australian premiere at the Palace Kino cinema in Melbourne cancelled their planned November 6 screening after a petition circulated that called the film "misogynistic propaganda".[15][16] The Change.org petition was declared victorious with 2,370 signatures.[15] A counter-petition to reverse the decision gained over 8,000 supporters in the following days, characterizing the original petition as an "effort to close down free speech in Australia" by those who wish to prevent "a screening of a movie that discusses issues that they fear might interfere with their agenda."[15] Organiser David Williams was critical of the original petition, stating that nobody who signed the petition would have seen the film.[17]

Mayfair Theatre, in Ottawa, cancelled a private screening of the film.[4][18] Lee Demarbre, co-owner and programmer of the theatre, said long-time patrons and a sponsor threatened to stop doing business with the venue if the film screening went ahead.[4] The screening was organised by the Canadian Association for Equality (CAFE).[4] Justin Trottier, co-founder of CAFE, said the message of the film is that "all human beings have issues — men have issues and women have issues and that what we really need to do is stop polarizing this debate and find common ground."[4] Julie Lalonde, who runs Hollaback! Ottawa, was one of several people who made complaints to the theatre.[4] Despite only seeing clips and not the entirety of the film, she described it as "misogynistic."[4] She said the idea of freedom of expression "is so abused in this country" and that "no one has the right to have their film shown."[4]

Critical response

Milo Yiannopoulos praised The Red Pill, calling it "a powerful film on a complicated, important, yet woefully unaddressed issue."[19] CineSource also praised the film, saying that "Jaye reveals that the movement’s core issues are valid and deserve much more attention."[20] Cathy Young gave the film a generally positive review, praising it for raising important issues that often go undiscussed and making "well-deserved" criticisms of feminism such as the movement ignoring male disadvantages and being openly opposed to rectifying biases in certain areas. She criticized the film for failing to devote attention to "the dark side of the men’s movement"; however, she adds that feminists also get "a pass for equally demeaning and hateful language toward males."[21] Alan Scherstuhl was critical of the film, describing Jaye as a "propagandist" and its cinematography as "amateurish", and claiming that the film fails to demonstrate a systemic cause for men's issues. He states that "the author of men's troubles here is always that vague bugaboo feminism, which we're told is designed to silence its opponents."[13] Bettina Arndt stated that after the successful Change.org petition to cancel the Australian premiere of the film, this criticism was "pretty ironic, given this 'vague bugaboo' persists in trying to silence Jaye’s attempts to tell this story."[1] Katie Walsh contends that the film exacerbates the divide in gender politics with its "uncritical, lopsided presentation", believing the film is "tilted in favour of the MRAs".[22] Matthew Pejkovic gave the film three and a half stars, and described the film as "an insightful and at times frustrating viewing experience."[2] John DeFore gave the film a mixed review, calling it "an admirable attempt at evenhandedness whose journalistic and aesthetic failings dilute its arguments."[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c Arndt, Bettina (October 29, 2016). "Cassie Jaye's Red Pill too truthful for feminists to tolerate". The Australian.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Pejkovic, Matthew (November 20, 2016). "The Red Pill Film Review". Matt's Movie Reviews.
  3. ^ a b c d e Liberatore, Paul (November 8, 2016). "Bay Area filmmaker's new film, 'The Red Pill,' is a bitter one for feminists to swallow". MercuryNews.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "Mayfair Theatre cancels showing of men's rights documentary The Red Pill". CBS News. December 2, 2016.
  5. ^ a b DeFore, John (November 2, 2016). "'The Red Pill' Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Scott, Catherine (November 10, 2015). "Meet the feminist who is making a film about the men's rights movement". The Daily Dot.
  7. ^ Yiannopoulos, Milo (October 26, 2015). "'The Red Pill' Filmmaker Started to Doubt Her Feminist Beliefs... Now Her Movie Is At Risk". Breitbart News.
  8. ^ Hunt, Elle (October 26, 2016). "The Red Pill: Melbourne cinema drops men's rights film after feminist backlash". The Guardian. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  9. ^ Yiannopoulos, Milo (November 3, 2015). "Feminists Are Panicking and Lashing Out At Cassie Jaye's 'The Red Pill' Movie". Breitbart News.
  10. ^ Daubney, Martin (November 12, 2015). "The Red Pill: the movie about men that feminists didn't want you to see". The Telegraph.
  11. ^ Lee, Benjamin (November 11, 2015). "Feminist film-maker criticised for making 'balanced' men's rights documentary". The Guardian.
  12. ^ Jaye, Cassie. "THE RED PILL - a documentary film". Kickstarter.
  13. ^ a b Scherstuhl, Alan (October 3, 2016). "You Can't Unsee The Red Pill, About a Filmmaker Who Learns to Love MRAs". Houston Press.
  14. ^ Cernovich, Mike (October 29, 2015). "The Red Pill Movie - Why I Became an Associate Producer". Danger & Play.
  15. ^ a b c Noyes, Jenny (October 25, 2016). "Melbourne's Palace Cinemas cancel screenings of MRA documentary 'The Red Pill' after petition". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  16. ^ Gillespie, Katherine (October 26, 2016). "Why Australian Men's Rights Activists Had Their Bullshit Documentary Banned". Vice.
  17. ^ Powley, Kathryn (October 25, 2016). "Men's rights group vows to push ahead with documentary screening". Herald Sun.
  18. ^ Mas, Susana (December 2, 2016). "Film on men's rights activists finds new venue at City Hall after Mayfair cancels screening". The Ottawa Citizen.
  19. ^ Yiannopoulos, Milo (October 8, 2016). "Cassie Jaye's The Red Pill: The Movie Striking Fear Into the Hearts of Feminists". Breitbart News.
  20. ^ Schwartz, D. (October 7, 2016). "The Red Pill: Cassie Jaye's Fall Down the Rabbit Hole". CineSource.
  21. ^ Young, Cathy (October 20, 2016). "New Film 'The Red Pill' Asks Whether Men's Rights Activists Have a Point". Heat Street.
  22. ^ Walsh, Katie (October 13, 2016). "'The Red Pill' only makes worse the divide between men's and women's rights activists". The Los Angeles Times.
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