
The cultural impact of the #MeToo movement has led to an increased recognition about the issues of sexual violence… date a rape episode in the USA is committed every 98 seconds (as per the department of Justice). It has also shed light on the consequences of false allegations of rape. Regardless, it is imperative to analyze each case independently, even when media subjects emotional content to public judgement.
Nancy Schwartzman’s strongly moving film “Victim/Suspect” venture into a highly sensitive theme but greatly emphasis on an important subject matter. This young woman however, were arrested for making false accusations. This film serves as a wake up call because it spotlights an issue that demand a gentle approach: sexual assault, its reporting, and investigation especially from the officials. Through the shocking journalism revealed in this film, it is evident that young women like Emma, Nikki, and Diyanie were subjected to intimidation during endless interrogations by police, leading to them being coerced into withdrawing their claims. Instead of receiving protection, these women were left handcuffed, devoid of any safety.
“Victim/Suspect” has a guiding light for truth in the form of rising journalist Rachel de Leon, who works at the Center for Investigative Reporting.
This story intertwines the life accounts shared in this article and the life of de Leon, who invested years compiling everything into an article, from investigating every detail to understanding the accounts. While compiling the articles, de Leon first reconstructs the assault tale of the victim and then compares it with the way the police took charge of the incident before closing it using the victim’s arrest. It brings with it extreme and blind information amiss and negligence by the people who are entitled to safeguard everyone. For them to work, de Leon poses a few questions, and the documentary’s zealous pursuit for truth and constant questioning her work, allows deli on to do so.
A common thread can be found in these narratives. If the officer has any doubts about these interviews with a possible sexual assault vict , they will interrogate them instead. They will rephrase a single question and keep repeating it, this way they will submit their victim into a confession room and keep them captive until the the got bored of resting and wanted to leave. To test their reactions, the cops will sometimes lie about claims of video footage capture at the site of the alleged incident. It’s not a matter of building trust; it’s a matter of surrendering to control and the absence of power, and it is not about justice.
Shifts mention that alleged assailants are not even that deeply interviewed, which lends evidence to the assumption.
The reasons for this can be more intentional like protecting a local figure, or more about bias that helps lightens the investigative time and paperwork. In the cases of Nikki and Emma, they served time in prison. All of the women interviewed here have had their experience with police culminate in headlines about making false accusations.
This is a wonderful piece of journalism as the film is a document, unfortunately it is narrated in a sludgy distracting fashion. Schwartzman loosely frames the doc around de Leon for years working on this article, but this can be very confusing when these scenes are documented in the timeline of the film. The time indicators are missing because the voiceover does not incorporate present and past tense concerning the creation of the article. This not only creates a needlessly so disoriented viewing experience but can also distract us from the moments which couldn’t be staged, such as watching from over the driving watching de Leon walk to the front door of some police figure who had previously not returned her phone calls.
But however chronologically jumbled, “Victim/Suspect” prevails with its many episodes of de Leon incisive reporting and dedication, and the insight we get from legal and policing experts about how this cycle continues.
In “Victim/Suspect,” De Leon strikes a balance between her journalism work and personal accounts of others, and, as a result, is able to incorporate a unique human perspective in her piece, which most journalists fail to provide as they focus on gathering facts. She explains that the more she uncovers about the stories, the more detached she becomes from being an activist for the victims at hand and there is a certain point of time where she simply wishes to complete each story.
De Leon hasn’t purchased what policing sells, so while she speaks to law enforcement, some of them do not wish to say anything. After a period of three years, she manages to get an audience with Detective Cotto, who happens to be the principal investigator of Nikki’s case. “In my case, it is about fact gathering…. I have to be impartial ini my reporting,” were his comments to de Leon at that instance. Try as he might, most of that interview did not go well for him and certainly broke his posture. Moving forward, both of them ‘rewound’ to the Nikki’s Case where de Leon revealed to him that one of the two suspects charged in her case had been accused of sexual assault a month prior to her case which, from Det. Cotto’s perspective, his department had not actively pursued The two men had never been interrogated which was the case with the first set of victims.
There is no pleasure to be had in this shocking revelation; it only attains further shame and disgust for the police system.
In ‘Victim/Suspect’ some perform their work as expected while others don’t. The consequences are powerful from both perspectives.
For More Movies Like Victim/Suspect (2023) Visit 123Movies