Tag Archives: porn

Backlash: Misogyny in the Digital Age

In 2017, the #MeToo hashtag shook the world, sparking an unprecedented wave of sexual assault revelations in the Western world. Today, the storm of virulent misogyny is raging on, flooding our screens with harassment, defamation, sextortion, revenge porn, rape & death threats, and more. According to the UN, 73% of women are abused online.

Backlash: Misogyny in the Digital Age plunges us into the vortex of online misogyny and documents hatred towards women. This bleak opus, reminiscent of a psychological thriller, follows four women across two continents who have found themselves victims of vile online threats and harrassment. What is it like to live with this so-called virtual violence? That’s what we aim to show by closely following the victims in their daily lives. As in a horror movie, we witness in real time the waves of hate that assail them, the fear that pervades their private lives, and the loss of their sense of security in public spaces.

Their lives shattered by a loss of confidence, and sometimes shame, Backlash reveals the devastating effects digital violence has on their victims, and brings to light the singular objective of cyber-misogyny: to silence women who shine.

Many victims of cyber-violence experience unimaginable horrors, with results too tragic for words. Others, proud warriors, will stand tall and refuse to be silenced.

Sticky: A (Self) Love Story

Everyone does it; few admit it; now there’s a movie about it!

Sticky talks candidly about what has been referred to throughout history as both a form of self-love and self-abuse. After being shamed as a child by fellow students for admitting that he masturbated, writer/director Nicholas Tana, interviewed over sixty sexologists, authors, religious figures, porn stars, and entertainers to understand what’s so wrong with masturbation.

Full of candid interviews from sex therapists, religious figures, and psychologists to celebrated figures such as former Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders, comedian Janeane Garofalo, and, among others, “Hustler” creator, Larry Flynt. Sticky answers age-old questions; “Will it make me go blind?”; “Is it “normal”?”; and, “Why are we so afraid to be caught in the act?” As well as tackling more contemporary issues like why the media portrays masturbation so negatively, how the world’s major religions disagree about the moral effects of self-pleasuring, and why the sale of sex toys is illegal in Alabama.

When confusion about sexuality remains at the root of so many societal problems – rape, sexual abuse, and the threat of sexually transmitted diseases – Sticky pulls no punches in exploring a subject that touches us all.

Taboo: Season 1 – Stolen Childhoods

Taboo: Stolen Childhoods is a series that shines a light on the dark underbelly of our society. Each compelling episode takes Jon Sistiaga to a unique dark place linked by the theme of shattered childhoods – from the web cams of the Philippines to a prison in Colombia, we meet with the abusers and the abused. Filmed with bold honesty and sensitivity Taboo: Stolen Childhoods is a series like nothing you have seen before.

Episode 1: Atonement

Villa Milagro – an isolated village in Florida – has a very particular census: all of its inhabitants have been prosecuted for sexual offenses, as its one of few places that meet sentencing requirements of being completely child-free.

Jon Sistiaga enters their houses and discovers how the toughest laws in the world are applied to child abusers, and what kind of lives can they return to after concluding their sentences. A portrait emerges of a community united in shame and misery. Against the odds though, some have managed to rebuild a life of sorts there, find forgiveness and even find love..

Episode 2: Perversion

Sweetie is a girl that lives in the Philippines. Her daily routine is to sit down in front of her computer and talk with men. Luckily, Sweetie is not real, it is a software created by a dutch foundation to hunt pedophiles.

In this episode, filmed in Spain, Holland and the Philippines, Jon Sistiaga investigates the horrifying world of child pornography.

We meet underaged webcam girls in the Philippines who, with their families support, fall victim to the Western demands for child pornography. Law enforcement officers tasked with tracking illegal images, grading them according to their severity and hunting down the ever-more tech-savy pedophiles who create and exchange them.

Episode 3: Grief

Children who one day disappeared and never came back. Families who await news from their lost children. These are the stories that embody every parents worse nightmares.

Jon Sistiaga travels to the heart of Minnesota to follow the trail of some children disappearances, contacting relatives and investigators. According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, in the US there are over 3,500 unsolved cases.

We meet with some of the few victims who had lucky escapes, and others who having suffered unimaginable crimes lived to tell the tale.

Episode 4: Monster

Luis Alfredo Garavito – known as ‘The Monster’ –  is by every measure the most feared and reviled murderer living today and perhaps ever to have ever lived . He has confessed to have killed, raped and tortured 140 children between the ages of 6 to 16 years old, though experts put the number at 172. He is currently imprisoned in a Colombian prison where Sistiaga, in scenes reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs, has gone to conduct an extended interview with him. With chilling detachment Garavito confesses to unimaginable crimes, tells of his motivations and how he was able to evade capture for so long. In doing so we are afforded a horrifying glimpse into the heart of darkness. We also revisit crime scenes and the families of his victims.

A quirk in Colombia’s legal system means that Garavito will be set free in seven years having served the equivalent of three months for each of his murders.

Inside Her Sex

Inside Her Sex is a thought-provoking documentary that explores female sexuality and shame through the eyes and experiences of three women from different walks of life, each brave enough to chart her own course of sexual discovery.

While we live in a highly sexualized society, the messaging around sexuality, particularly female sexuality, is distorted and rife with shame. What we should look like, who we should want, what we should desire…in fact, who we should be, is dictated to us from screens and pages and people. As if there is one correct answer.

Stepping outside the common narrative is never straightforward. Exposing our deeper selves can be terrifying, even risky.

Candice, Elle, and Samantha have little in common. Not their age, not their hometowns, not their family circumstances. But they are all women. They are all sexual. And be it through circumstance or happenstance, they have each faced their sexual selves head on, and chosen to step outside the bounds of what society has dictated they should be, raising some interesting questions:

What happens if we are able to tap into our innate sexuality? To push beyond the bounds of societal structure and expectation? To stand up to powerful messaging and divert from the prescribed course?