Earlier this year, a case involving Stanford swimmer Brock Turner unleashed backlash when he was sentenced to just six months in a county jail after being convicted of three felony sexual assault charges. (He ended up serving only half of that sentence.) Turner testified that he hoped, in the future, to speak out against the college campus drinking culture and the sexual promiscuity that goes along with that. This could squarely be classified as a straw man, and an inappropriate response to sexual violence. What, then, is an appropriate response, when consent is difficult to prove or disprove?
In a six-minute thriller culminating in a riotous rock score, we see a woman transform from victim to attacker. Consomm begins quietly, with a scene of a woman in bed, looking beat-up and tired. As she rises to face the day, shes startled by flash backs from the night before; after a fight with a boyfriend, she walks home and is assaulted by a man on the street.
The original idea came when a girlfriend of mine was angry at an ex-boyfriend and about to walk home late at night. Another friend said, be careful getting home. I saw a flash of fire cross her eyes, almost like, TRY to mess with me tonight, when I have this fire burning! Fordham said. I wanted to make a film that wasnt about a superhero, or a physically powerful woman, but just an ordinary woman with a fire inside her. What strength is possible if we can tap into that power? What fierceness is there when we fight for our lives as if we deserved it?
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