The Red Pill

This article is about the 2016 film. For other uses, see red pill (disambiguation).

The Red Pill
Promotional release poster
Directed by	Cassie Jaye
Produced by	Evan Davies Cassie Jaye Nena Jaye Anna Laclergue
Cinematography	Evan Davies
Edited by	Cassie Jaye
Music by	Douglas Edward
Production company	Jaye Bird Productions
Distributed by	Gravitas Ventures (DVD)
Release dates	October 7, 2016 (2016-10-07) (New York City) March 7, 2017 (2017-03-07) (DVD release)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$211,260[1]

The Red Pill is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Cassie Jaye. The film explores the men's rights movement, as Jaye spends a year filming the leaders and followers within the movement. It premiered on October 7, 2016 in New York City, followed by several other one-time screenings internationally. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray in 2017 by Gravitas Ventures.

Title

The title of the film refers to a scene in the film The Matrix, in which the protagonist is offered the choice of a red pill, representing truth and self-knowledge, or a blue pill representing a return to blissful ignorance.^[2] By analogy it seeks to bring awareness to the contrast between the men's rights movement, fathers' rights groups, and what they perceive as gynocentrism in wider society.^[3]

Synopsis

The Red Pill shifts from Jaye's investigation of what she initially believed to be a hate movement to more sympathetic coverage of the movement. The shift is shown in the film through Jaye's questions about her own views on gender, power, and privilege. The Red Pill also discusses issues facing men and boys, including interviews with men's rights activists and those supportive of the movement, such as Paul Elam, founder of A Voice for Men; Harry Crouch, president of the National Coalition for Men; Warren Farrell, author of The Myth of Male Power; and Erin Pizzey, who started the first domestic violence shelter in the modern world. It also includes interviews with feminists critical of the movement, such as Ms. magazine executive editor Katherine Spillar,^[4] and sociologist Michael Kimmel. It additionally contains excerpts from Jaye's video diary.

Some of the issues discussed as facing men and boys are male suicide rates, workplace fatalities, high-risk jobs, military conscription, lack of services for male victims of domestic violence and rape, higher rates of violent victimization, issues concerning divorce and child custody, disparity in criminal sentencing, disproportionately less funding and research on men's health issues, educational inequality, societal tolerance of misandry, routine circumcision, men's lack of reproductive rights, lower life expectancy, false rape allegations, paternity fraud, sperm theft and homelessness.^[5]

Funding

According to Jaye, she initially struggled to find financiers for a film about the men's rights movement.^[6][7] In an October 2015 interview with Breitbart News, Jaye said "we weren't finding executive producers who wanted to take a balanced approach, we found people who wanted to make a feminist film."^[8] Jaye started a campaign on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, which she called a last resort.^[7] The Kickstarter page, which described the project as a fair and balanced look at the men's rights movement, was strongly criticized by some feminists.^{[7][9][10][8]} The campaign raised $211,260, exceeding its goal of $97,000.^[11]

Alan Scherstuhl's review for The Village Voice suggested that many of those providing funding for the film may have themselves been men's rights activists (MRAs), thereby creating a conflict of interest.^[12] Jaye stated that "our five highest backers ... are neither MRA nor feminist. I would say three out of five of them didn't even know about the men's rights movement, but wanted to defend free speech,"^[7] and that the film's backers and producers would have no influence or control of the film.^[7]

Release

The Red Pill had its world premiere on October 7, 2016 at Cinema Village in New York City. It played there for a week before opening in Los Angeles on October 14, 2016. One-time screenings were also scheduled at various locations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia.^[13]

In March 2017, the film was made available online.^[14]

Screening cancellations

The Australian premiere at the Palace Kino cinema in Melbourne cancelled their planned November 6 screening after a petition circulated that called the film "misogynistic propaganda".^[15][16] The Change.org petition gained 2,370 signatures.^[15] A counter-petition to reverse the decision gained close to 5,000 supporters^[15] in the following days, characterizing the original petition as an "effort to close down free speech in Australia" by those who wished to prevent "a screening of a movie that discusses issues that they fear might interfere with their agenda."^[15] Organizer David Williams was critical of the original petition, stating that nobody who signed the petition would have seen the film.^[17]

The Mayfair Theatre in Ottawa cancelled a private screening of the film.^[5][18] Lee Demarbre, co-owner and programmer of the theater, said long-time patrons and a sponsor threatened to stop doing business with the venue if the film screening went ahead.^[5] The screening was organized by the Canadian Association for Equality (CAFE).^[5] Justin Trottier, co-founder of CAFE, said that the screening was an attempt to find common ground instead of polarizing the debate.^[5] Julie S. Lalonde, who runs Hollaback! Ottawa was one of several people who made complaints to the theater.^[5] She said the idea of freedom of expression was being abused, and that "no one has the right to have their film shown."^[5]

A screening had been planned by the Wildrose on Campus club at the University of Calgary, an organization for student supporters of the Wildrose Party of Alberta, but was cancelled after an email about the screening was sent out by the club with the subject line "Feminism is Cancer" and beginning "You and I both know that feminism is cancer. To create a dialogue on campus, we have decided to take action." The club later posted an apology to Twitter and cancelled the screening.^[19] In response to the controversy, Jaye said she would never equate feminism with cancer but "would be curious why do they think that."^[20]

After initially agreeing to finance a student screening, Sydney University's student union defunded the event, claiming the film promoted violence against women.^[21] In a public post on its website, the union said "We believe there is the distinct possibility that the planned screening of this documentary would be discriminatory against women, and has the capacity to intimidate and physically threaten women on campus".^[22] The screening was moved back a week and had to be financed privately by the clubs that had initially organized it.

Reception

Critical response

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes has given the documentary a 29% rating based on 7 critic reviews, with an average rating of 4/10.^[23]

Katie Walsh of Los Angeles Times said the documentary "lacks a coherent argument" because it "is built on a fundamental misunderstanding" of key terms. Walsh said the terms could have been better defined "to comprehend the ways in which patriarchal systems control resources to exploit both women and men". She recognized that "there are many dire and urgent troubles men face that should be addressed" but concluded of the documentary, "[It] only exacerbates that divide with its uncritical, lopsided presentation and inability to craft a compelling argument regarding a topic this controversial."^[24]

John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter said, "Cassie Jaye's The Red Pill is clumsy and frustrating in many ways. But it demonstrates enough sincerity and openness to challenging ideas — letting representatives of this problematic movement make their case clearly and convincingly — that one wishes it were able to look at multiple sides of this debate at the same time." DeFore summarized the film as "an admirable attempt at evenhandedness whose journalistic and aesthetic failings dilute its arguments".^[4]

Alan Scherstuhl of The Village Voice, critical of the men's rights movement, considered the film's production quality weak due to being Kickstarter-funded and highlighted that it was campaigned for by A Voice for Men and Reddit's men's rights forums. Scherstuhl considered the documentary to be "amateurish" with weak visuals. He said, "What the film and the movement fail to demonstrate is any kind of systemic cause. Instead, the author of men’s troubles here is always that vague bugaboo feminism, which we're told is designed to silence its opponents."^[12]

Cathy Young of Heat Street gave the film a positive review, saying it raised important issues that often go undiscussed and made "well-deserved" criticisms of feminism. She criticized the film for failing to devote attention to "the dark side of the men's movement", and stated that the film would have benefited from onscreen discussion of the subjects in which MRAs are on "far shakier ground".^[25]

Corrine Barraclough, of the Australian tabloid newspaper The Daily Telegraph, said "the message of The Red Pill is compassion" and the film made her "wonder why feminists tried so hard to silence this crucial conversation."^[26]

Awards

The Red Pill won three awards at the 2017 Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema: "Best of Festival", "Excellence in Directing Documentary", and "Excellence in Producing a Documentary".^[27][28] Cassie Jaye also won the "Women in Film Award" at the Hollywood Digifest Festival for her work on the film.^[29]

References

1. Daubney, Martin (November 12, 2015). "The Red Pill: The movie about men that feminists didn't want you to see". The Telegraph.
2. Annabel Crabb. "The Red Pill ban: an absurdity only online activism could create", The Sydney Morning Herald, April 22, 2017. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
3. de Boise, Sam (2018). "The personal is political … just not always progressive: affective interruptions and their promise for CSMM". NORMA. 13 (3–4): 158–174. doi:10.1080/18902138.2017.1325098. ISSN 1890-2146.
4. DeFore, John (November 2, 2016). "'The Red Pill' Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
5. "Mayfair Theatre cancels showing of men's rights documentary The Red Pill". CBS News. December 2, 2016.
6. Hunt, Elle (October 26, 2016). "The Red Pill: Melbourne cinema drops men's rights film after feminist backlash". The Guardian.
7. Scott, Catherine (November 10, 2015). "Meet the feminist who is making a film about the men's rights movement". The Daily Dot.
8. Lee, Benjamin (November 11, 2015). "Feminist film-maker criticised for making 'balanced' men's rights documentary". The Guardian.
9. "Why Australian Men's Rights Activists Had Their Bullshit Documentary Banned". Vice. Retrieved August 19, 2017.
10. Daubney, Martin (November 12, 2015). "The Red Pill: the movie about men that feminists didn't want you to see". The Telegraph.
11. Jaye, Cassie. "THE RED PILL - a documentary film". Kickstarter.
12. Scherstuhl, Alan (October 4, 2016). "Warning: You Can't Unsee 'The Red Pill,' the Documentary About a Filmmaker Who Learns to Love MRAs". The Village Voice. Retrieved May 26, 2017.
13. "THE RED PILL / FIND A SCREENING". Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
14. "THE RED PILL / BUY / RENT / STREAM". Archived from the original on March 11, 2021. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
15. Noyes, Jenny (October 25, 2016). "Melbourne's Palace Cinemas cancel screenings of MRA documentary 'The Red Pill' after petition". The Sydney Morning Herald.
16. Gillespie, Katherine (October 26, 2016). "Why Australian Men's Rights Activists Had Their Bullshit Documentary Banned". Vice.
17. Powley, Kathryn (October 25, 2016). "Men's rights group vows to push ahead with documentary screening". Herald Sun.
18. Mas, Susana (December 2, 2016). "Film on men's rights activists finds new venue at City Hall after Mayfair cancels screening". The Ottawa Citizen.
19. "'Feminism is cancer': Wildrose on Campus fires communications director over email". CBC News. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
20. Anderson, Drew (March 21, 2017). "Red Pill director says men's rights issues being drowned out by mudslinging". CBC News. Retrieved April 7, 2017.
21. Bolt, Andrew (April 15, 2017). "Union Stops Woman Screeing Woman's Film. Says Bad For Women". Herald Sun. Retrieved April 16, 2017.
22. Akerman, Tessa (April 15, 2017). "Uni of Sydney Union in hot water on Red Pill film ban". The Australian. Retrieved April 16, 2017.
23. "The Red Pill (2016)", Rottentomatoes.com.
24. Walsh, Katie (October 13, 2016). "'The Red Pill' only makes worse the divide between men's and women's rights activists". The Los Angeles Times.
25. Young, Cathy (October 20, 2016). "New Film 'The Red Pill' Asks Whether Men's Rights Activists Have a Point". Heat Street. Archived from the original on November 11, 2016.
26. Barraclough, Corrine (January 17, 2017). "Feminists, you're wrong. The Red Pill is not a hateful film". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved April 19, 2017.
27. "Awards – IIFC 2017". Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema. Archived from the original on October 20, 2017. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
28. Smith, Marshall (January 18, 2017). "IIFC awards ceremony takes place before packed house". Idyllwild Town Crier. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
29. Callaghan, Greg (July 28, 2017). "Cassie Jaye's film on the men's rights movement shocked Australia. Why?". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on November 7, 2018.

External links

• Official website
• The Red Pill at IMDb
• The Red Pill at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Red Pill at Metacritic