Real Deal: Documentary on UF rape case could be big break for a pair of Miami filmmakers

1/31/2002
By RENE RODRIGUEZ

What defines a rape?

That was the controversial question dominating last year's Sundance Film Festival, where the documentary Raw Deal: A Question of Consent, about an alleged rape on the University of Florida campus, became a sensation.

Now, South Florida audiences can enter the debate. Raw Deal will be shown for the first time in the United States since last January, on Saturday and Monday as part of the 19th Miami Film Festival.

And for the guys behind the camera -- Miami college students and filmmakers Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman -- showing Raw Deal on their home turf will be the latest chapter in a story that mirrors any aspiring filmmaker's dream: to make a movie according to your own vision, without studio interference; unveil it at Sundance, the nation's premiere showcase for independent films; and spend the ensuing weeks negotiating distribution deals and juggling calls from talent-hungry agents wanting to know what you are going to do next.

That is what happened to Corben and Spellman last January, after Raw Deal galvanized Sundance audiences, landed the pair on the front page of The New York Post and provoked a studio bidding war.

''Everybody who saw the film wanted to talk about it,'' recalls Spellman, 23, the film's producer. 'At the question-and-answer session following the first public screening, 90 percent of the audience stayed to talk to us. . . . When we heard Raw Deal was going to be on the cover of The New York Post, Billy and I looked at each other and said, `How can this possibly be of interest to people in New York when we're in this little mountain town and a total of 500 people have seen the film?' It was quite a shock to us.''

The movie is also guaranteed to shock anyone who sees it. Shot on digital video, Raw Deal chronicles the bizarre goings-on at the University of Florida in February 1999, when a stripper (and ex-prostitute) named Lisa Gier King said she was raped by UF student Michael Yahraus, a Delta Chi frat brother, after being hired to perform at a pledging ritual.

Media attention snowballed after authorities got their hands on a videotape, shot by a frat member, that documented the alleged rape -- then turned around and arrested King, charging her with false reporting of a crime.

The school's National Organization of Women chapter joined the fray, pressuring the Alachua County state attorney's office to further investigate the case. In their protests, NOW charged that authorities had downplayed the crime to avoid negative attention on UF. The state attorney's office responded by entering the videotape as court evidence -- making it a public record under Florida's Sunshine Law, available to anyone for $20 a pop.

Seemingly overnight, the extremely graphic video, showing King and Yahraus engaged in clumsy, groping sex, became the talk of Gainesville, with the inconclusive content allowing both sides to further their arguments.

Eventually, the state attorney and King made a deal: Her charge was downgraded to a fine for stripping with an expired license. Six fraternity members were charged with solicitation and the university suspended Delta Chi for three years.

The story made its way down to Miami, and in early 2000, Corben and Spellman -- best friends who had been been making movies since high school and had gone on to the University of Miami -- were immediately intrigued.

''It was a fascinating story,'' Spellman says. ``Billy and I looked at each other and said we should probably pick up a camera and go try to shoot a documentary.''

Along with friend David Cypkin, who served as assistant producer, Corben and Spellman skipped out of UM and headed to Gainesville, where they would spend some three months. Their lack of training in documentary filmmaking never fazed them.

''I never even read a book on documentaries,'' said Corben, 23, who directed Raw Deal. ``We kind of made it up as we went along. The one thing we really tried to do with Raw Deal was to capture the more cinematic elements of feature filmmaking and bring them into the documentary arena. Raw Deal has a very clear three-act structure, and . . . we felt strongly enough about our story-telling ability that we would be able to use this as a calling card.''

Taking a journalistic approach, the filmmakers began interviewing people on the periphery of the case -- school administrators, security officials -- working their way up to the attorneys and police officers.

'I think since we were new in town and we were 20 years old, we had an advantage over Mike Wallace or Diane Sawyer knocking on doors and saying `60 Minutes is here,' '' Spellman says. ``The students were a lot more at ease with us, and word got out that we were conducting our interviews with integrity.''

That reputation led to interviews with the press-shy King and Delta Chi frat member Tony Marzullo, who was in the room during the alleged rape and is seen repeatedly on the videotape, drunkenly saying self-damning things like ''Possibly one of the more exciting evenings in the history of Delta Chi: The raping of a white trash crackhead b---h. Please observe.'' The entire scene made its way into the film.

The filmmakers were unable to interview Yahraus and another frat member, Leo Yuque, who had shot most of the video. But King agreed to speak on camera, along with her mother and grandmother, and Marzullo signed up as well, eager to tell his side.

One of Corben's prime objectives was to give the parties equal time, and the film leaves conclusions to the viewer. Even today, Corben and Spellman prefer not to publicize their feelings about the case.

''I attribute that objectivity to the teamwork involved in the movie,'' Corben says. 'I would say, `I have to put this comment from Tony in.' And Alfred would say, 'You can't do that unless you put in that comment we got from Lisa.' There was this constant negotiation where everyone played devil's advocate.''

If the release of the video caused a frenzy in 1999, the film isn't exactly the talk of Gainesville just yet.

''I don't believe there's a huge buzz on campus [regarding the film],'' said UF law student Nicole Fried, 24, who was student center president at the time of the incident. ``But I have a lot of questions about the facts of the situation, so if a real story is being told, there will be a positive notion along with it -- it would bring up conversations about fraternity life and women's rights, and when do you draw a line when too much is too much.''

What Raw Deal will do, though, is remind people of the incident and where it happened. ''There's nothing wrong with a movie coming out, I just think it's sad,'' says Glenn Rossbach of Miami, who was a UF undergrad at the time. ``There was the five murders [the 1990 Danny Rollings case] and everybody gets over that, and now it's going to be everyone talking about this -- but if it happened there, what can you say?''

Dean of Students Eugene Zdziarski, in a statement, called it ``not one of our proudest moments. [But] we have taken steps to stress to our students that this type of behavior will never be tolerated.''

The lurid footage has made some critics nervous. While praising the film, Variety described Raw Deal as ''an uncomfortable sit,'' and Entertainment Weekly called it ``the taboo-smashing culmination of a new, voyeur-happy film/video culture in which we peep, therefore we are.''

Even Corben admits that on the eve of Raw Deal's Sundance premiere, he was suddenly struck by self-doubt.

'I started thinking, `Do you really want to be famous for this?' '' he says. 'I suddenly felt a little uneasy about being the messenger here -- being the people responsible for bringing this story to the masses. But then Alfred sort of shrugged and said, `What difference does it make?' He was insinuating that it's a good piece of work, so all that other stuff wouldn't be so bad. And he was right.''

After a heated bidding war at Sundance, Raw Deal, which was primarily financed by Spellman and Corben, was acquired for theatrical distribution by Artisan Entertainment (the same folks who released The Blair Witch Project) for a sum that Spellman describes as ''enough.'' Originally slated for release last August, the film was bumped to October, then postponed after Sept. 11 (Spellman says it is scheduled for release in the second quarter of this year).

Inevitably, Raw Deal will earn an NC-17 rating, which could limit box office, but it's something Corben is willing to accept to get the movie shown intact.

''This is not a movie for children,'' he says. ``This is a movie for adults with adult themes. I understand the disturbing and dark nature of the footage. It's not a pleasant thing to view.''

Since Sundance, Spellman and Corben have shown the film at the Edinborough Film Festival and sold British broadcast rights to the U.K.'s Channel 4, where it will air later this month with digital masking of graphic sequences.

The pair also have founded Spellman/Corben Productions, a Miami-based company, hoping to produce feature films, TV shows and music videos made in South Florida, while working with local financiers instead of studios to protect their creative freedom. The idea is to do for Miami what Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats) did for New Jersey, or Richard Linklater (Slacker, Dazed and Confused) did for Austin, or Barry Levinson (Diner, Avalon) for Baltimore: Raise its national profile as a filmmaking center.

One thing they won't be doing is Raw Deal 2.

''I don't think you'll see another documentary from us for a very long time,'' Corben says. ``The hardest thing for documentary filmmakers to do is to make the switch into feature films. Joe (Paradise Lost) Berlinger has made brilliant documentaries, but he was offered Blair Witch 2 and took it, with disastrous results. We are very cognizant of that. We're not documentarians; we're filmmakers, and we want to make a feature next.''

IF YOU GO

Raw Deal: A Question of Consent' will be shown at 8 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 p.m. Monday at the Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach; 305-674-1026. Tickets are $10. The Saturday show is sold out. For tickets, call Ticketmaster at 305-358-5885 or 954-523-3309ûor visit www.miamifilmfestival.com

The festival runs today through Feb. 3 at various locations. At 7 tonight, there will be a free open-air screening of "One From the Heart'' on Miami Beach between Seventh and Eighth streets.