connielane (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
connielane) wrote2017-09-26 12:15 am
connielane) wrote2017-09-26 12:15 am
The End of the World (not really, but it's felt like it)
A lot has been going on lately, and I've been "vaguebooking" about it, but I realize not everyone is up on what has actually happened.
A recap, if you're interested (there's probably stuff I'm missing, but here is what I know, starting with a little context):
- On October 7, 2016, as you no doubt remember, the being that is now President of the United States was heard on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women, most famously with the phrase "grab 'em by the pussy."
- Outrage ensued, as you also no doubt remember. Republican lawmakers clutched their pearls for about 48 hours before realizing they had more to lose (short term, anyway) by disavowing their nominee. But the rest of us were outraged for much longer. Over a dozen women came forward with stories about being sexually assaulted by him. It was all pretty gross. One of the people who expressed his disgust was film critic and enfant terrible Devin Faraci, who at the time was editor of BirthMoviesDeath.com.
- A woman responded to a tweet or post of his (I can't remember and I can no longer find it), asking if he remembered grabbing *her* pussy several years before at (I think) a Fantastic Fest event. He did not attempt to deny it, saying that he didn't specifically remember it, but that he had probably been drunk and did not doubt her story, describing his behavior as "vile." He stepped down as editor of BMD and basically disappeared (at least online).
-- Side note: many people already despised Devin before this; I was not one of them. I could only take him in small doses because he was frequently a dick, but I occasionally found him thoughtful and I especially enjoyed (well, usually) listening to his and Amy Nicholson's podcast, The Canon. When the news broke, I was sad for the situation, wholly sympathetic to the woman who came forward, and hoped that Devin would get the help he needed.
[snip eleven months]
- A few weeks ago -- on September 11, no less -- materials for Fantastic Fest started coming out. Someone noticed that one of the descriptive blurbs had Devin's name on it, crediting him as having written it. Outrage ensued, understandably.
- Tim League (CEO of the Alamo Drafthouse, under whose umbrella both FFest and BMD reside) made a brief statement defending himself and making it sound like Devin's rehiring was recent and that he was just trying to help a friend. This did not appease much of anyone.
- One of the FFest programmers resigned, citing the Devin situation and the general "boys club" nature of the fest as his reasons. In his open letter, he revealed a few things, including that as soon as a month after supposedly stepping down, Devin was still "around" and on the payroll.
-- Side note 2: I'll interject here that, as I recall, the announcement of Devin's resignation never said he wasn't going to be affiliated with the company in any way, shape or form -- just that he was stepping down as editor. I realize that's parsing words, and it's still extremely dishonest and Tim should have known better, but I wasn't that surprised that Devin wasn't fully extricated from the company. (*cue West Wing clip of Leo saying "nobody lied" and Toby firing back "NOBODY LIED???"*)
- Somewhere in the middle of this, an email was revealed that Tim had sent to another woman who'd been an object of sexual assault (I think from someone else, but I'm not certain), and the email rather chillingly requested that the woman keep quiet about the incident and saying that the situation would be handled.
- One of the films scheduled to play the festival -- Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Missouri -- pulled out. Which is a shame, because, given its plot, it could have been a great catalyst for a frank discussion about the issue of rape/sexual assault and rape culture at the festival. But it's more than understandable that the studio didn't want all this mess to be part of the movie's press.
- Over the next couple of weeks, things just got worse, and Tim ended up hiring a crisis manager. He issued yet another statement, which was better than the first (promising to go to all the theaters and have conversations with the staff, and listen to ideas about how to make things better and more safe), but it wasn't enough for a lot of people.
- Just before the festival started, news got out that Ain't It Cool News had removed its sponsorship and that Harry Knowles, who had helped found the festival, wouldn't be in attendance. He said initially that he simply thought it was the right thing to do, but there was also talk of some "rumors" that he was already claiming were flatly untrue.
- This past Saturday, a story broke on IndieWire that a woman was accusing Harry of groping her on several occasions, and that when she told Tim and his wife Karrie a few years later, they were horrified but didn't know what else to do. Harry has flatly denied any wrongdoing, and in fact, just before the story broke, tweeted that a story was about to come out that was "100 percent untrue." (I'm paraphrasing; I muted him on Twitter and can't bring myself to look at his feed right now.)
- At least two more women have come forward with stories about Harry, and from the chatter among my BNAT friends, there are several more women with similar stories who *haven't* come forward. Friends of his have been stunned, and frankly ashamed that many of these women (who were also friends of theirs) didn't feel they could say anything because "You're good friends with him; I didn't know what you would say."
- In the past three days, far from making any amends or even acknowledging any wrongdoing, Harry is simply pretending as if nothing has happened, posting FFest updates to AICN as usual (which I only see because Scott Weinberg keeps retweeting them and attaching disgusted epithets). I half expect him to post a BNAT application in a couple of weeks, even though there is no way BNAT is happening ever again, at least not with his participation.
***
[ETA: I hope it goes without saying, though I hadn't done so explicitly until now, that I do believe these women.]
I can't even pinpoint what I'm feeling right now -- sick, sad, angry, guilty. I feel dumb for placing huge portions of my self-worth and credibility as a film fan in whether or not I got picked to go to BNAT. I feel bad for feeling bad for Harry and his family and what they're about to go through (as I was typing this, Austin Film Critics Association removed him from their membership) because I still think of him as a friend. I've been in his home, he's brought me together with some of my favorite people, and he opened my eyes to huge swaths of cinematic experience that I would never have known about or taken a chance on otherwise.
And I'm about to be spending a whole lot of time at the Yonkers and Brooklyn Drafthouses in the next few weeks. I spent a lot of money -- just before all this broke -- to get tickets to all of their Fantastic Fest screenings. They're BOTH doing Dismember the Alamo events in October. And I love their programmers, who have nothing to do with any of this. But it still feels oogie because Tim and Karrie *knew* about a lot of this and didn't do anything. Like, I get that Harry doesn't work for the Drafthouse and they don't have authority over him, but having him at Fantastic Fest all those years and just telling women to steer clear???
Anyway, lots of feelings right now. I'm tentatively planning on still going to Austin in December. Several BNAT regulars made their travel plans long before this and are planning to be there. There are conversations happening about having an alterna-BNAT at people's houses.
I'm just tired of things being crap. Remember when we thought 2016 was terrible?
A recap, if you're interested (there's probably stuff I'm missing, but here is what I know, starting with a little context):
- On October 7, 2016, as you no doubt remember, the being that is now President of the United States was heard on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women, most famously with the phrase "grab 'em by the pussy."
- Outrage ensued, as you also no doubt remember. Republican lawmakers clutched their pearls for about 48 hours before realizing they had more to lose (short term, anyway) by disavowing their nominee. But the rest of us were outraged for much longer. Over a dozen women came forward with stories about being sexually assaulted by him. It was all pretty gross. One of the people who expressed his disgust was film critic and enfant terrible Devin Faraci, who at the time was editor of BirthMoviesDeath.com.
- A woman responded to a tweet or post of his (I can't remember and I can no longer find it), asking if he remembered grabbing *her* pussy several years before at (I think) a Fantastic Fest event. He did not attempt to deny it, saying that he didn't specifically remember it, but that he had probably been drunk and did not doubt her story, describing his behavior as "vile." He stepped down as editor of BMD and basically disappeared (at least online).
-- Side note: many people already despised Devin before this; I was not one of them. I could only take him in small doses because he was frequently a dick, but I occasionally found him thoughtful and I especially enjoyed (well, usually) listening to his and Amy Nicholson's podcast, The Canon. When the news broke, I was sad for the situation, wholly sympathetic to the woman who came forward, and hoped that Devin would get the help he needed.
[snip eleven months]
- A few weeks ago -- on September 11, no less -- materials for Fantastic Fest started coming out. Someone noticed that one of the descriptive blurbs had Devin's name on it, crediting him as having written it. Outrage ensued, understandably.
- Tim League (CEO of the Alamo Drafthouse, under whose umbrella both FFest and BMD reside) made a brief statement defending himself and making it sound like Devin's rehiring was recent and that he was just trying to help a friend. This did not appease much of anyone.
- One of the FFest programmers resigned, citing the Devin situation and the general "boys club" nature of the fest as his reasons. In his open letter, he revealed a few things, including that as soon as a month after supposedly stepping down, Devin was still "around" and on the payroll.
-- Side note 2: I'll interject here that, as I recall, the announcement of Devin's resignation never said he wasn't going to be affiliated with the company in any way, shape or form -- just that he was stepping down as editor. I realize that's parsing words, and it's still extremely dishonest and Tim should have known better, but I wasn't that surprised that Devin wasn't fully extricated from the company. (*cue West Wing clip of Leo saying "nobody lied" and Toby firing back "NOBODY LIED???"*)
- Somewhere in the middle of this, an email was revealed that Tim had sent to another woman who'd been an object of sexual assault (I think from someone else, but I'm not certain), and the email rather chillingly requested that the woman keep quiet about the incident and saying that the situation would be handled.
- One of the films scheduled to play the festival -- Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Missouri -- pulled out. Which is a shame, because, given its plot, it could have been a great catalyst for a frank discussion about the issue of rape/sexual assault and rape culture at the festival. But it's more than understandable that the studio didn't want all this mess to be part of the movie's press.
- Over the next couple of weeks, things just got worse, and Tim ended up hiring a crisis manager. He issued yet another statement, which was better than the first (promising to go to all the theaters and have conversations with the staff, and listen to ideas about how to make things better and more safe), but it wasn't enough for a lot of people.
- Just before the festival started, news got out that Ain't It Cool News had removed its sponsorship and that Harry Knowles, who had helped found the festival, wouldn't be in attendance. He said initially that he simply thought it was the right thing to do, but there was also talk of some "rumors" that he was already claiming were flatly untrue.
- This past Saturday, a story broke on IndieWire that a woman was accusing Harry of groping her on several occasions, and that when she told Tim and his wife Karrie a few years later, they were horrified but didn't know what else to do. Harry has flatly denied any wrongdoing, and in fact, just before the story broke, tweeted that a story was about to come out that was "100 percent untrue." (I'm paraphrasing; I muted him on Twitter and can't bring myself to look at his feed right now.)
- At least two more women have come forward with stories about Harry, and from the chatter among my BNAT friends, there are several more women with similar stories who *haven't* come forward. Friends of his have been stunned, and frankly ashamed that many of these women (who were also friends of theirs) didn't feel they could say anything because "You're good friends with him; I didn't know what you would say."
- In the past three days, far from making any amends or even acknowledging any wrongdoing, Harry is simply pretending as if nothing has happened, posting FFest updates to AICN as usual (which I only see because Scott Weinberg keeps retweeting them and attaching disgusted epithets). I half expect him to post a BNAT application in a couple of weeks, even though there is no way BNAT is happening ever again, at least not with his participation.
***
[ETA: I hope it goes without saying, though I hadn't done so explicitly until now, that I do believe these women.]
I can't even pinpoint what I'm feeling right now -- sick, sad, angry, guilty. I feel dumb for placing huge portions of my self-worth and credibility as a film fan in whether or not I got picked to go to BNAT. I feel bad for feeling bad for Harry and his family and what they're about to go through (as I was typing this, Austin Film Critics Association removed him from their membership) because I still think of him as a friend. I've been in his home, he's brought me together with some of my favorite people, and he opened my eyes to huge swaths of cinematic experience that I would never have known about or taken a chance on otherwise.
And I'm about to be spending a whole lot of time at the Yonkers and Brooklyn Drafthouses in the next few weeks. I spent a lot of money -- just before all this broke -- to get tickets to all of their Fantastic Fest screenings. They're BOTH doing Dismember the Alamo events in October. And I love their programmers, who have nothing to do with any of this. But it still feels oogie because Tim and Karrie *knew* about a lot of this and didn't do anything. Like, I get that Harry doesn't work for the Drafthouse and they don't have authority over him, but having him at Fantastic Fest all those years and just telling women to steer clear???
Anyway, lots of feelings right now. I'm tentatively planning on still going to Austin in December. Several BNAT regulars made their travel plans long before this and are planning to be there. There are conversations happening about having an alterna-BNAT at people's houses.
I'm just tired of things being crap. Remember when we thought 2016 was terrible?