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.
If I remember correctly, “Juicebro” originated on GamerGhazi as part of an effort to stop discussing specific individuals by their real names even if they used their real names on Twitter or their own blogs. I don’t recall the context — something about a visiting KIA regular and Total Biscuit being upset about being named… long ago, lots of spilled feelz under the bridge.
Anyway, Cernovich had just brought out a new self-published book on his juicing advice and was frantically humping sales on Twitter and his blogs, so somebody labeled him “Juicebro,” which he then tweeted and blogged about as well. He’s very sensitive. About himself, I mean.
At the time, he was playing down his advocacy and personal use of steroids — injecting testosterone — so I don’t think the nickname was meant as an allusion to “sperm juice,” though his confession on his blog that the injections had shrunk his balls “only” 25% will be good for the occasional side snark forever.
Fifty years from now, little kids will go up to Grandpa Gamer and ask, “Grandpa, who’s Shrunken Nads and why do people laugh whenever they hear that and then say, ‘Always take your health advice from a lawyer before he gets disbarred’?”
When we use their names after they tell us what they are or click their Twitters after they link to them here: How dare those communazi SJWs invade our privacy! WAAAH!
When they doxx everything from our home address to our favourite t-shirt: Meh. All’s fair in ethics and games journalism.
I always assumed that “Juicebro” was an allusion to steroid abuse, since “juicing” is slang for that, if I recall correctly. But yeah, he WAS hawking some kind of quack juice-diet stuff as well. So for him, it’s definitely a double entendre.
(Didn’t help his LIQUID FUCKING GOLD any, though!)
@luzbelitx
Aww! That’s a pretty kitty.
This whole Cassie Jaye & “The Red Pill” story has more twists & turns than a mystery novel.
She seems determined to go ahead with this project. I have to admit that I’m very curious about this film. Not enough to actually pay to see it, but I’ll very interested in the remarks of those who do view it.
Even if Cassie Jaye makes a fantasy film about MRA heroes instead of a documentary about–well, the real people involved in the MRM, it will do the MRAs no good. Once potential new MRAs find out (so, so easily) that the MRM is a bunch of hate groups, most of them will back way off. Most people of any gender don’t want to make their lives all about hate and standing in the way of those who want their rights.
Luckily for humanity, most of us root for the underdog.
>>Frankly, the fact that she’s made Juicebro Cernovich an associate producer is more damning than anything else she’s done so far
If that’s true, yep. Cernovich is a piece of work for sure.
I appreciate the more complete article. II still don’t think the award is an issue. That’s just my opinion, and if no one chooses to attack me or call me a troll, I’m not going to need to repeat my opinion. Even the article that was linked to said that the festival is “an actual event”. If I was young filmmaker scrambling for attention and funding, I ‘m pretty sure that if i had a BEST DOCUMENTARY award from any festival, publication, or church bake sale, I would mention it in my advertising. That why they call it advertising.
I know that Paul Elam is supposed to be happy about this, but… look, I’m kind of new to this part of the Manosphere, isn’t Paul Elam kind of stupid? And isn’t he sort of known for gloating, no matter what’s actually happening?
Remember how the Sarkeesian effect was going to be a world class history making documentary? All I saw in the preview for The Red Pill was a bunch of guys whining about stuff that’s not actually on the screen. I can imagine Paul Elam thinking two hours of men whining is really gripping, cutting-edge cinema.
Wanna see my Halloween Video? It’s sort of crazy.
https://youtu.be/2QM3tNB_8k8
Dude. You’re not making this easy.
Hey Felix, need me to fetch you a damp sponge on a stick while you’re busy nailing yourself to that cross?
You’re totally missing the point. The issue being discussed here isn’t whether or not the award is legitimate or whether the festival actually exists, it’s whether it’s intentionally misleading to describe it as “Best Documentary at Cannes”, which implies a far, far more significant award than it actually was.
There’s an equivalent situation in the UK, where there are two universities in Oxford. One is one of the great world-class universities, and the other decidedly isn’t. And yet graduates from Oxford Brookes University can legitimately say “I went to university in Oxford”, and I’m sure plenty do – but they’d be just as misleading if they didn’t correct any assumptions that they meant Oxford University.
Hi David, I sent an email to the mods but wanted to add in here to. I came across this and thought it was pretty cool, it’s good to have some good news every now and then and I’m all for anything that decreases the stigma around mental health treatment.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/01/are-you-man-enough-for-man-therapy.html
Sure, the “other” Cannes festival is an actual event. But is it a LEGIT event? And if not (and all the signs seem to be pointing in the direction of “not”, here) then why use it on one’s advertisements? Does anyone really want to advertise the fact that they got taken in by a pay-to-play scam? And doesn’t that say a lot (none of it flattering) about their professionalism?
You can repeat your opinion till you’re blue in the face, but that still doesn’t make you right.
So it’s about as honest as me calling myself an Academy Award winner. Specifically, honour roll from my high school which has the word “Academy” in its name.
I’m an Olympic medalist in diving!
Okay, it was the Junior Olympics and I took bronze in a field of four. But hey, Olympic medalist sure has a nice ring.
I’m still waiting to see how this turns out. She claims that there will be “two sides”. So I’ve still got my fingers crossed that she will point out of the unfortunate realities around MRAs.
Surely she just has to talk to any feminist for them to tell her that MRAs arguments are against straw-feminism.
Its frustrating that feminists are constantly told ‘you don’t care about men’. When we talk about men’s problems we get told “your trying to make men’s problems all about feminism, how dare you”.
They are an entire movement propelled by assumptions they base on whats *not* said.
If I were to say “I think rape is a problem for women”, they would tell you I said: “Men can’t be raped, all men are rapists, and all women are suffering from rape”
We need a movement that actually cares about making mens lives better. Not about upholding restrictive gender norms. We can’t go backwards, only adjust how we go forward.
I’m a WORLD CHAMPION.
… Pokemon Master back in the early ’00s. And it was technically national, we just called it “World” since the actual World Championship didn’t exist yet. But still. WORLD CHAMPION.
I have a Golden Globe!
Well, when the lighting is right.
I have the world record in tic tac toe.
I have two Grammys…*
*and two Grandpas as well
I was on the Dean’s List at my graphic design college.*
*For one semester.
I used to date Minnie Driver.
Well, she drove a Mini. So she was a Mini driver.
I’ve been the Top Chef.
Where I work, anyway.
A field of four?!
I spent some time at Oxford*.
* Walking around, mostly – visited some neat used book shops.
Since when did spiderman use battle axes or is that just something “spader man” uses
Sunny, thanks for the link!
Bina, I’m absolutely completely 100% positive that Cerno is NOT the troll who lived on the beach.