A SHOCKING EXAMPLE TO US ALL

Susan Mansfield

August 16, 2001

SCENES of drunken sex at a college fraternity party. Video footage of an alleged rape. The graphic and controversial material used in Raw Deal: A Question of Consent could be viewed as pornographic. But according to Edinburgh International Film Festival director Lizzie Francke, context is the key. "The context is discursive," she says. "The case is controversial, and the documentary deals with the controversy. It is intelligently put together and doesn't exploit the material."

In fact, she says, the film puts the material back into its proper context. After the video evidence of the alleged rape was made public under Florida law, it was treated by some as pornography.

"One of the points that the film makes is that people were requesting these tapes for their own entertainment. They were getting a few beers and watching these tapes on a Saturday night. That's a very depressing insight into people's minds.

"What the documentary is doing is recontextualising the material, exposing how badly this case has been handled. It is an absolute indictment of the American legal system, particularly in the issues around rape. I think the film-makers were attempting to bring some kind of justice to the situation. We have become, in the US and in Britain, nations of voyeurs. People film everything. These guys filmed a rape as part of their party. The film highlights that issue. It is very depressing portrait of a small pocket of contemporary America." However, Francke says that the video footage is an integral part of the film.

" It's about the nature of truth and how it is presented. It pulls away the layers to look at the nature of evidence and testimony."

She says that in the context of the documentary, the sexual nature of the material is unlikely to be a barrier to the film's distribution. "If someone in this country did want to distribute it, I can't imagine it having a problem.

"It would be good if it has some life outside the US because it is educational," she says. "It is the kind of film I would think all law students should see."