Steubenville, Ohio, is synonymous with two things these days: high-school football and sexual assault. They go hand in hand. There’s a line in Roll Red Roll, Nancy Schwartzman’s documentary about the 2012 Steubenville rape case, that goes something like this: “This is not a victim-blame BUT…” and then the speaker, the defense attorney for one of the high-school boys who raped a teenage girl at a party, predictably goes on to victim-blame her. Rape culture, and the social-media posts that added fuel to the fire, are laid bare in this expertly shot, explicit, and hard-to-watch film. Also, did you know Anonymous, the hacker group, got involved? Me neither.
Roll Red Roll screens tonight and tomorrow afternoon at the 45th Seattle International Film Festival. Further details here. Check out The Stranger‘s complete SIFF guide here.
