‘Victims/Suspects’: Who is Rae de Leon, the heroine of the Netflix shock documentary?
This Tuesday, May 23, will be a documentary titled victims/suspects, directed by Nancy Schwartzman, was released on Netfix. The film follows Rae de Leon, an investigative journalist, on her investigations She is accused of making false statements following complaints of sexual assault.
Summary
This film sheds light on a worrying problem: many young women who report having been sexually abused are being charged with false reporting. Instead of finding justice, these victims are themselves considered suspects, arrested and even jailed by the justice system they thought they could trust to protect them.
Rae de Leon, a journalist and producer, says she worked on this investigation for four years and collected more than 160 cases of alleged sexual assault victims who were considered suspects. She traveled across the United States to discover, study and uncover this alarming find. When Rae de Leon spoke to these women, they claimed that the sexual assault took place. Her investigative work sheds light on the failures of the criminal justice system and gives a voice to women who are victims of the double trauma of having suffered sexual assault and being accused of false testimony. What were these women told:
” I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you at all. Your version of the facts doesn’t match the evidence we have. (…) If you keep lying, things will end very badly. (…) They agreed, it was a sexual one Relationship between two adults. (…) Attention, false declaration is a criminal offense. I have to arrest you.” “I was raped and they told me that I lied about it. »
Note: This documentary by journalist and producer Rae de Leon was screened in the official selection of the Festival du film de sun dance 2023. This 39thth edition of the festival (39th Sundance Film Festival), organized by the Sundance Institute took place from January 19th to 29th, 2023. “I am eternally grateful to these young women and their loved ones for entrusting their stories to me (…). I’ve been dealing with this issue for four years, so it’s an incredible honor to preview our work (…). she had explained.
