rakontur blog

‘RAW DEAL’ FUROR PROMPTS BIDDING FRENZY

Friday, January 26, 2001
By LOU LUMENICK

PARK CITY, Utah - A bidding war erupted yesterday at the Sundance Film Festival as studios scrambled to buy a documentary containing shocking footage of frat-house sex, including an alleged rape.

Marathon talks that could yield a multimillion-dollar deal were under way with several film companies interested in acquiring “Raw Deal: A Question of Consent,” which contains extensive 8mm videotape footage of a stripper named Lisa Geir King performing various sex acts with fraternity boys.

King alleged she was raped by one of the fraternity brothers after the 1999 party, but authorities in Gainesville, Fla., declined to bring charges against student Michael Yahraus after viewing the tape. Instead they charged King with making a false report to police.

That fueled months of controversy, during which the charge against King being downgraded to dancing without a license, and six fraternity brothers, who had previously been promised immunity, were charged with soliciting, a misdemeanor.

Law-enforcement officials made the triple-X-rated frat-house tapes public under the state’s Sunshine Law to defend their conduct.

Since its Sundance debut here, “Raw Deal” has provoked a firestorm of controversy as audiences debate whether the extremely explicit sex footage is exploitative or, as King believes, provides a valuable lesson for college students.

Festival organizers rushed to schedule an additional screening yesterday to meet the demand. It was filled to capacity.

“Raw Deal” has made its producer and director, a pair of 22-year-old college students, the hottest new filmmakers at the nation’s leading festival for independent movies.

Director Billy Corben and producer Alfred Spellman spent the day being pursued by “Dateline NBC,” “Extra,” “Inside Edition” and other news outlets that have been chasing the story since it broke in a front-page piece in yesterday’s editions of The Post.

“Our cell phones have been ringing off the hook,” said Spellman, a senior at Florida International University. “We’re extremely excited by the response to this movie, which we’ve been working on for a year.”

Spellman declined to discuss the negotiations or how much the shot-on-video movie cost to make.

But sources placed the price tag at well under $500,000 - and the sensation surrounding it could result in a deal in the low seven figures.

Sources said the most serious bidders were Aristan Entertainment and Lions Gate Films, two indie studios that are not required to submit their films to Hollywood’s ratings board and have released unrated films.

MTV and the Learning Channel were also reported to have expressed interest.

If “Raw Deal” were submitted for a rating, it would most likely draw an NC-17 (no one under 17 admitted), which would exclude it from many theaters.

Major Hollywood studios and their art-film subsidiaries - like Miramax, Fine Line, Fox Searchlight and Paramount Classics - are legally bound to release rated movies, and none of them has distributed an NC-17 in years.

Earlier this week, Corben and Spellman were honored at a reception thrown here by the Florida State Film Commission, which seemed remarkably unfazed by the movie’s explicit nature or its critical view of Florida officials.

“This is all about honoring our filmmakers and encouraging people to make movies in our state,” said state film commissioner Rebecca Mattingly, who hadn’t seen the documentary.

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1/26/01

RAW DEAL: A QUESTION OF CONSENT

by Anthony Miele

**** 1/2

Director Billy Corben has stumbled onto one of the most controversial films of the modern day. With the legal issues of womens rights and sexual harrassment always jarring heated debates this film is, quite simply, gasoline on the fire. “Raw Deal” is not just a pornographic documentary of an evening of sex, strippers, drunkeness, drugs, dirtier sex and the eventual alleged rape of exotic dancer Lisa Gier King; it is also a very thorough accounting of the months of legal issues that eventually took place.

The date is Friday, Febuary 26, 1999 and the Delta Chi fraternity brothers at the University of Flordia throw a party with the obligatory collegiate setpieces — drunken guys, naked women and more drunken guys. Sounds like your average big, dumb male party until the next morning when King frantically flees from the frat house and lands straight in the police station, accusing Michæl Yarhaus of rape. This is where the s**t really does hit the fan because once the police get involved, it is discovered that the boys (luckily) had not one, but TWO video cameras recording almost the entire evening’s events! (Please read on — it gets more bizarre) So now, the police in dumbf**k Florida view the pornographic footage and decide not only to drop the charges against the boys, but to arrest King for filing a fraudulent report!

What proceeds, over the next few months, is a tale of almost comical proportions that makes one realize that maybe the state officials in Florida ARE as dumb as they have recently been accused. Maybe we should simply sever the panhandle state from the continent and let the Cubans deal with it.

“Raw Deal” is not really a film that can be “rated” on your average scale since the subject matter is so unbelievably powerful, but that can be “judged” is the way in which the events are presented. More than simply heads speaking their side of a seven-layered cake, there is actual footage of the piece of testimony to either support the claim of the interviewee or prove them wrong. This is really where the film triumphs. It not only is one of the better-edited docs in quite some time but it is also one of the most compelling pieces of non-fiction ever produced.

While it may not succeed in finding a concrete solution to numerous questions, the film, at its base, makes a valiant attempt to uncover all pertinent answers. We get to see rejections from the ladies of N.O.W. (who would NOT give an interview unless they were paid a substantial amount of money) to the state Attorney General, Rod Smith (who also abstained from commenting). The fact the these two orgs kept quiet to the documentary crew is not the most amusing thing; what is so entertaining is watching the guys chase these groups down to no avail, repeatedly.

This is a film that MUST be seen by men and women, together, if not to expose this amazing story to the world, then just to see how split down the middle men vs. women are in regards to the outcome. You decide which way each sex falls.

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Party On Dude! Well, That is if You’re on the List

01-26-2001: Park City, Utah

By Steve Ramos

THE HAPPENING: Can’t Buy Me Buzz. The headline of the Jan. 25 New York Post says it all: “Rape, Lies and Videotape — Victim relives horror caught live on frat house tape.” With that one story, Raw Deal: A Question of Consent, a documentary about an accused rape at the University of Florida, has become the official “buzz” film of Sundance 2001. TV news shows are already contacting Raw Deal director Billy Corben and producer Alfred Spellman for interviews. Their negotiations with interested distributors have reached a fever pitch. For the moment, Corben and Spellman are the belles of the Sundance ball.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “They (New York Post) devoted a cover story. We devoted a year of our lives. But I have to admit it’s all a little overwhelming. People are looking at us on the streets now. It’s really weird.” — Raw Deal director Billy Corben on becoming a Sundance sensation.

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