I KNEW HIM, a 2007 video of mine that challenges preconceptions of rape and sexual assault has received some interesting and important recirculation this winter. The video played the festival circuit and was nominated for the Iris Prize, the world’s largest LGBT media prize, back in 2007. Then this month, in light of the U.S. Department of Justice’s gender-neutral redefinition of rape, RAINN, the Rape and Incest National Network picked up the video as part of a new online outreach campaign.
The video has since been discussed and reposted in a range of online community contexts including the interdisciplinary University of Minnesota-based blog The Society Pages.
It’s heartening that the piece has become a tool and a catalyst for cultural debate, a phenomenon distinctly afforded by the Internet and the digital age.
The Sexual Assault Center of the McGill Students Society in Montreal posted on RAINN’s use of I Knew Him…
Sounds like a pretty amazing centre: “SACOMSS is a pro-survivor, pro-feminist, anti-racist, anti-ableist, anti-classist, queer-positive, trans-positive and anti-oppressive organization. We provide a safe, accessible and non-judgmental space for members of many different communities and identifications. All our services are open to the public and are provided free of charge.”
Read their response to the video here: http://sacomssmediawatch.com/2012/02/04/the-visibility-of-sexual-abuse-survivors/