Human Rights Watch Film Festival: Roll Red Roll
Steubenville, Ohio, a town famous for two things: serving as Dean Martin’s birthplace and nursing a devotion to high school football that’s so strong, the locals were willing to cover for a pair of gridiron marauders guilty of rape. Once upon a time, the coach would have excused his star players — both accused of repeatedly assaulting and degrading a 16-year-old girl over the course of an evening — with a complicit wink and grin. When that very situation famously played itself out in 2012, the skipper of Steubenville High’s tenacious team asked, “Can’t you use another word for rape?” eager to eclipse the guilty light cast on his star quarterback and wide receiver. Blaming the victim became a popular pastime. In the eyes of many, it would have been easier for “Jane Doe” to cry rape than to tell her parents that, while in a drunken stupor, their baby girl had consensual sex with a pair of muscle-bound jocks. Were it not for “real news” crime blogger Alex Goddard, none of this information would have been brought to light. Nancy Schwartzman’s documentary is as compelling a fact-based crime thriller as any narrative feature that’s played town in recent memory. Don’t miss it! — Scott Marks