If you look at Cassie Jaye’s official bios, you might be forgiven for thinking that the director of the upcoming Red Pill documentary had won an impressive “best documentary” prize at Cannes for her first feature-length film.
On her LinkedIn page, Jaye writes that “Daddy I Do,” her film on the abstinence-only movement, “won the Best Documentary Award at the 2010 Cannes Independent Film Festival.” She makes similar statements on YouTube and on her official site, CassieJaye.com.
Press coverage of the young filmmaker has made much of her Cannes award. In a feature on Jaye, the San Rafael Patch reported breathlessly that “Daddy I Do soon garnered immense acclaim, culminating with the Best Documentary Award at the Cannes International Film Festival.” Feminist website Bust declared that the film “has already won Best Documentary awards in several festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival.” A writer at Rumpus.net started off her interview with Jaye by congratulating her for winning “Best Documentary at Cannes.”
But if you go to the official site of the Cannes Film Festival, and look at its list of winners for 2010, you will find no mention of Daddy I Do.
Hell, you won’t find a Best Documentary winner for that year at all, because Cannes didn’t actually have a Best Documentary award.
So what’s going on? Is Jaye lying? Well, not technically.
She did win an award with the word “Cannes” in it. But it didn’t come from the official Cannes festival.
It came instead from a knockoff event, the Cannes INDEPENDENT Film Festival, that many in the film business consider an outright scam, using the Cannes name in order to profit from entry fees, much as the makers of the Spader-Man action figures above hoped to make money from confused or perhaps overly thrifty fans of the real Spiderman.
A site called CannesGuide warns filmmakers not to submit films to the faux festival, declaring that
the Cannes Independent Film Festival (CIFF) is, in our opinion, a scam. It is not connected to the Festival de Cannes, Marche du Film, or any other official festival organisation. It is a coat-tails event, run from the UK, which likely seeks to capitalise on the prestige associated with the city’s name and famous festival.
Although CIFF is a real event, we have questioned its legitimacy in the past and continue to believe that there is little or no value to filmmakers in submitting a film.
Since that was written, the “festival” seems to have vanished entirely from the world. Take a look at what its official web site looks like now. (Seriously, take a look.)
Jaye’s supporters will presumably point out that she’s never technically lied about her award or claimed that it came from the official Cannes festival. Certainly it’s not her fault that reporters make mistakes!
Except that it kind of is. Here’s a screenshot from the trailer for Daddy I Do.
Most people seeing this flash by on the screen, I suspect, will remember the giant CANNES and won’t even notice the word “independent” underneath it. Or, like the reporter for the San Rafael Patch, they’ll change the “independent” to “international” in their minds.
At the very least’s it’s a graphic seemingly designed to capitalize on the confusion between the Cannes Independent Film Festival and the real Festival de Cannes.
No, Jaye isn’t doing anything illegal here. But trumpeting an award from a phony festival as if it were a real award is not only dishonest; it’s kind of pathetic.
Has Cassie herself said that Mike Cernovich is now an associate producer? I don’t see any mention of it on the documentary’s website or the Kickstarter page.
@Auntie Alias
Hmm, I guess I just took others commenters’ word for it. In the latest update on her Kickstarter she said this:
But here’s the thing.. the reward for pledging $10 000 is an Associate Producer credit. See below:
—
Pledge $10,000
5 backers All gone!
I Believe This Film Will Make a Difference!
All of the above rewards +
An Associate Producer credit! You will have your name in the opening and closing credits of the film, you will get complimentary tickets to all screening events, and you will share in any awards or accolades we may receive for the film. You will officially be a part of The Red Pill team! (You also may decline the title of Associate Producer or gift the title to someone else if you’d prefer to be anonymous)
—
So I suppose she didn’t pick Juicebro specifically for a Associate Producer credits.
@dhag85
Ah, thank you. That looks bad for her and the production and would have if feminists were made associate producers in the same way.
As for the people listed in the credits that she interviewed for this, the vast majority of them appear to be misogynists. “Big Red” is the only feminist name I recognize.
@Auntie Alias
I think the following are feminists, but I’m not sure:
Michael Kimmel
Michael Messner
Katherine Spillar
Darrah De Jour
Barbara Smith
I might be missing one or two, but not more. I also didn’t google all these names, but I’ve trusted the credits page when it describes someone as “feminist” they are actually a feminist.
I recognize 22(!) names associated with A Voice for Men and other MRA groups.
Doh! I forgot about Michael Kimmel from the preview. None of the other names are familiar so thank you for that.
So, presumably Associate Producer is a vanity credit and they won’t be doing any actual work on the film. Is Cernovich claiming he’s an executive producer or did whichever commenter who brought it up just accidentally use the wrong word?
@wwth
I haven’t seen anybody use the term executive producer.
Yup, definitely a vanity credit. I suppose that’s not nearly as damning as if he’d actually had anything to do with the making of the film. On the other hand, it’s clear from the Kickstarter page that 5 people have donated $10 000 each, which in total makes up more than 1/2 of the original funding goal, and more than 1/3 of the current total mount pledged. One of those people is Juicebro. I’m gonna guess most of the others are manospherians as well, but I don’t know.
Barbara Smith is a black/lesbian/feminist activist with a solid background as far as I can tell.
Michael Messner is a professor of sociology and gender studies who seems to be sympathetic to feminism.
Darrah De Jour seems to be mostly a fashion blogger who also writes about gender issues.
Katherine Spillar is the executive editor of Ms. Magazine and executive vice president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. Both seem legit.
Ah, fired shots too early. A vanity credit is hardly a sign of any heavier involvement. I take my quotation marks and place them in my back pocket in case they are needed in the future.
And don’t forget, he lives DIRECTLY ON THE BEACH. That means all the other men’s wives must be dying to fuck him! So buy that book and the juice (assuming he’s still selling it) and you, too, will have testosterone out the wazoo and be picking off all the poor desperate women in no time flat!
Holy crap. That’s the same guy who trolled here??
Auntie Alias, AFAIK Cassie has not officially confirmed that Cernovich will be a producer, but she retweeted a post of his in which he said that so I think it’s pretty much a done deal. Though I suppose she could always change her mind, give back the money, and not give him the title.
I agree with those who see this as a giant problem for her film; selling a producer credit to a raving antifeminist bully and bigot does not exactly enhance her credibility.
Totally off-topic, but have any of you seen the new video about Thunderd00f/Laughing Witch from Bewildered Ape? I don’t know if this link works, I am using my phone.
http://youtu.be/KQgrIrJx4Dk
It did! 🙂
I’m about 90 percent certain it’s him. Cernovich lives in Venice (which is oceanside), is (allegedly) a lawyer, and is a known PUA. The troll is “Michael” (Cernovich’s first name), lives DIRECTLY ON THE BEACH (in Venice???) and also a lawyer…allegedly. Things that make you go hmmm…
Admittedly if Jaye were playing the long con and this turned out to be an anti-MRA (read: credible) film, I’d say that was $10,000 well-accepted. I wonder how much Cernovitch would pay to have his name scrubbed from it.
What gets me about that whole exchange is that Juicebro (forever calling him that now, thanks dhag!) keeps responding directly to Seth, even though it’s his wife responding directly to his tweets.
Says a lot about the man, if I’m honest.
Disclaimer! I didn’t actually come up with the name Juicebro. I believe some other WHTM commenter has used it before, and it stuck in my head.
@Paradoxical Intention
Why would any sensible bro address a woman? Everyone knows a wife is just an extension of her man.
Also, how does anyone come off as such a hurt little creature while supposedly on the offend? Reminds me of my friend’s kitten who would arch her back and scream whenever she felt cornered (by a feather toy).
Looking at her old tweets from 2010 that someone dug up. It does seem (at least to me) like at the time she believed this was the actual Cannes Film Festival. But by now she obviously knows the truth.
OT, but check out this misandry: Bite Beauty is bringing out a lipstick to support the fight against prostate cancer. Its name: Mauvember!
Unrelated: This cutie showed up in my back yard.
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e224/arjentina86/Mobile%20Uploads/WP_20151101_003.jpg
Oh, what a cute kitty!
@David
It sounds like a done deal to me, too, based on what you said.
Feel free to ignore this question if you want to but have you had any contact with Cassie since your first post went up?
@Bina
Oooo, I love that lipstick shade.
That award doesn’t even appear on imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1323593/awards