A University of Arizona graduate returned to Tucson to tell her story of rape on the big screen. Jillian Corsie says it happened in her dorm, one month into her freshman year. She returned to screen a documentary film of her experience showcased today at the Loft.
"You know, I'm sitting in my story, believing in myself, and that's the most important thing,"said Corsie.
After graduating from UA in 2010, five years after her rape, Corsie told herself she'd never come back to Tucson. So for her, being back in town to showcase something as sensitive as her rape story leaves her nervous.
"Its scary to come and feel like the community may be angry at me for making this film, but so far it seems like I've done an OK thing. Because actually making this film has made me more in love with Tucson that I felt when I left in 2010, when I thought I'd never come back,"said Corsie.
Corsie says, before the Me Too movement, was a viral hashtag called #NotOkay. Author, Kelly Oxford, started the trend and wanted women to tweet her their assault stories. That's when Corsie joined in. She wanted to tell her story publicly, 10 years after her rape.
"There were hundreds of thousands of women tweeting their stories, and I was one of them. And then when I did that, a bunch of journalists and documentary filmmakers contacted me to tell my story. And I was a documentary filmmaker myself, so I thought if anyone should tell my story, it should be me,"said Corsie.
In the 20-minute short film, Corsie confronts the officer who took her police report. A big step she thought she'd never do. The officer was remorseful about how he treated Corsie and her report back in 2005. He explained, since then, there have been news ways of training officers on how to deal with sexual assault reports.
"Frankly, it really changed my life having that conversation with him,"said Corsie.
Her next move is to show this film on UA's campus. She hopes it will start meaningful conversations about campus sexual assaults and how they are reported.
UA's screening will be on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 2:30 p.m. in the Physics-Atmospheric Sciences Building, Room 224.
