ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
C just turned 13. Two years ago she was raped in her elementary school by another student. Failed by the system, C is determined to bring us into the world and mind of a rape survivor.

SYNOPSIS
A Girl Named C (Working title) is a feature documentary addressing one of the most pervasive and taboo subjects in the United States; child sexual assault. The statistics on the occurrence of child sexual assault are staggering but relatively unknown. 1 in 3 girls before the age of 18 is sexually assaulted in America and experts estimate up to 50% of their perpetrators are other children. Clearly, we're not getting something right.

In an America where sexual assault and harassment against women has been normalized even in the context of our highest office in government, where we more than ever need to expose the horrors that women and girls are facing in this country, I cannot emphasize enough how important this film is.

Adult perpetrators have been called out in society in the catholic church, in educational institutions and through internet pornography—but what about child perpetrators? How do we deal with children who perpetrate sexual assault and where does this impulse come from?

What's more, how do we help child victims live the rest of their lives? How do we validate their experiences and form an environment that allows them to come forward? How can our legal system support this? These are the questions this film seeks to address.

A GIRL NAMED C (working title) approaches the issue of child sexual assault a little differently than the films that have come out recently on the topic (Audrey & Daisy, Hunting Ground etc.) It's not a true crime tale but rather the exploration of trauma and assault through the eyes of a child—an extraordinary individual who shares her life experience through the telling of her trauma.

We also don't tell C’s story for her—we thought we might be better off letting her tell it herself, and so we gave C a camera for her 13th birthday. C, determined to get answers concerning her rape, films a lot of her own narrative, and we film her.

The fact remains, like so many cases of child sexual assault, there is no evidence of what happened to C. There are children who saw them go in and emerge from that bathroom together. There are friends and teachers who can attest to her good character. There are psychologists and statistics that can verify the rareness of children misreporting rape. But as is the case for most assaults, no one who can verify the rape. C has only her word, her pain and the determination to share her story. In that light, this film is about exposing a tragically ubiquitous experience that needs to be addressed. What's more, it's about an epidemic facing the youngest members of society and the process of healing through a child's eyes and voice. This film will help us understand what it means to be a victim and the insurmountable obstacles of being believed and finding justice. This is a story about childhood and trauma, magic and pain.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR Emily Kassie
PRODUCER Emily Kassie, Aidan Shipley, Caroline Kassie