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Is “Red Pill” director Cassie Jaye’s Cannes award a fake? Signs point to “yes.”

Seems legit
Seems legit

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.

Screenshot of the Daddy, I Do trailer
Screenshot of the Daddy, I Do trailer

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.

 

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Auntie Alias
Auntie Alias
9 years ago

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.

dhag85
9 years ago

@Auntie Alias

Hmm, I guess I just took others commenters’ word for it. In the latest update on her Kickstarter she said this:

We have now far surpassed our Stretch Goal of $114,000, largely thanks to two new Associate Producers who generously came on board for $10,000 each

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.

Auntie Alias
Auntie Alias
9 years ago

@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.

dhag85
9 years ago

@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.

Auntie Alias
Auntie Alias
9 years ago

Doh! I forgot about Michael Kimmel from the preview. None of the other names are familiar so thank you for that.

weirwoodtreehugger
9 years ago

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?

dhag85
9 years ago

@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.

dhag85
9 years ago

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.

Leda Atomica
Leda Atomica
9 years ago

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.

Bina
Bina
9 years ago

Juicebro seems to be having an obsession with Seth Rogen right now. Looks like some time last month he wrote a tweet randomly saying Seth Rogen is having marriage problems. Rogen’s wife tweeted him back and said “He is?!?! That’s so sad! I hear his wife is awesome.” – obviously rolling her eyes at him. Then either Cerno faked a tweet, or she has deleted it. Juicebro has uploaded an image of a twitter thread where he tweets “Your wife won’t fuck you hahhahahahhahha” to Seth Rogen. Rogen’s wife then allegedly tweeted back: “Well, she definitely would fuck you!”

Now, this may or may not have happened. Can’t find this tweet anywhere, but if it was indeed a real tweet it’s pretty clear she was being sarcastic.

Cerno’s response? More than two weeks later he wrote a blog post with the title “Why Does Seth Rogen’s Wife Want to Have Sex with Me?”. In it, he repeatedly attacks Rogen for being “weak”, “lazy”, “fat”, and for being a “self-loathing” white person (hello dog whistle).

At the end it turns into a promotion post for Cerno’s book.

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!

Auntie Alias
Auntie Alias
9 years ago

And don’t forget, he lives DIRECTLY ON THE BEACH.

Holy crap. That’s the same guy who trolled here??

painteyelash
painteyelash
9 years ago

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

painteyelash
painteyelash
9 years ago

It did! 🙂

Bina
Bina
9 years ago

Holy crap. That’s the same guy who trolled here??

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…

Rabid Rabbit
Rabid Rabbit
9 years ago

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.

Paradoxical Intention
9 years ago

Leda Atomica | November 1, 2015 at 11:43 am
Ugh. I read his Twitter too doing my research and was wondering if Rogen had pissed in his morning coffee.
Seems totally like *the* person to associate with your very serious and neutral “documentary”.

That’s right, I put quotes around 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.

dhag85
9 years ago

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.

Leda Atomica
Leda Atomica
9 years ago

@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).

dhag85
9 years ago

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.

Bina
Bina
9 years ago

OT, but check out this misandry: Bite Beauty is bringing out a lipstick to support the fight against prostate cancer. Its name: Mauvember!

Luzbelitx
9 years ago
Bina
Bina
9 years ago

Oh, what a cute kitty!

Auntie Alias
Auntie Alias
9 years ago

@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.

ernesto
ernesto
9 years ago

That award doesn’t even appear on imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1323593/awards