Good news everyone! The Red Pill, director Cassie Jaye’s completely objective documentary about Men’s Rights Activists that was funded in part by these very same Men’s Rights Activists as well as by a guy best known for convincing a large number of voters in the final days of the last US presidential election that Hillary Clinton was so sick she could pretty much die any minute, and with the help of a right-wing celebrity “journalist” who was later thrown off Twitter for his role in a racist harassment campaign against comedian Leslie Jones, and … wait, let me start this sentence again.
The Red Pill, director Cassie Jaye’s completely objective documentary about Men’s Rights Activists, has won what I have been assured are “Some of the highest honours in the [motion picture] Industry.”
The film has won not one but three such awards: The highly coveted Chuck Washington Best of Festival Award at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema, as well as the Mary Austin Award for Excellence In Producing A Documentary at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema, and did I mention the Mary Austin Award in Excellence In Directing A Documentary which was also, in a remarkable coincidence, given out at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema.
“The Whatsit Internatonal Whoosiwhatsis of Whatchmadangy?” you may ask. The Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema, silly, held every year for eight years now in Idyllwild, California. Despite being the smaller of the two annual film festivals in the Palm Springs area, it nonetheless is the film festival that shows us “that within the Film Industry ‘The Red Pill’ is being seen as the best film of the year.”
Or so says the noted film expert and anonymous Redditor who calls him or herself Imnotmrabut in a pinned post on the Men’s Rights subreddit that I just noticed today:
At the Idyllwild International Film Festival, a festival set up by film makers for film makers, the red pill has blown away the barriers. It is the first documentary film to win the prestigious Best In Festival Award.
The film also was recognised for “Excellence in Directing” and “Excellence in Producing”.
Apparently these three WORLD SHATTERINGLY IMPORTANT awards are going to be an absolute NIGHTMARE for whoever has to paste a mention of them into the DVD packaging for the film.
There is going to be a frenzy updating the artwork for the 07 March 2017 release of the film on DVD and BluRay. I’d hate to be the one having to wrangle that puppy with the current deadlines. The Print Bill is going to be high and nerves will be frayed.
Never before in cinematic history has a graphic designer ever had to tweak the DVD cover art several weeks before the release of a film on DVD!
It’s plain obvious that people need to start mentioning that within the Film Industry “The Red Pill” is being seen as the best film of the year.
All Tugg material for any and all events now needs to make it clear that this is not just as Film – It’s an Award Winner, and the people who make the films say so.
Well, not literally ALL the people who make the films. ALL the people who make the films AND WHO ARE ALSO the judges at the smaller of the two film festivals in the Palm Springs area.
As for the reference to Tugg, I don’t know what that is but frankly I’m not sure I want to know.
Don’t just tell folks that It’s a film about men’s issues – it’s now a certified Best Film, Awarded Some of the highest honours in the Industry, and it just happens to be about men’s issues.
While we’re talking awards, I’m going to award Imnotmrabut the prestigious Amanda Huggenkiss Memorial Award for Excellence In Inappropriate Capitalization at the world-renowned David Futrelle’s Apartment International Festival of Reddit Posts I Happened to Read.
Role on Friday 07 March 2017, and don’t forget that 08 March is International Women’s Day. I wonder what questions the media will be asking this year?
The question I would start with would be “er, what?”
Surprisingly, the regulars in the Men’s Rights subreddit are not quite as excited about the awards as Imnotmrabut is. “Let’s not get carried away,” one cynical soul who clearly does not understand the magic of International Cinema writes. “Most of use have never heard of these awards before.”
Naturally, Imnotmrabut offers a lengthy rebuttal to this poopyhead detractor.
So many think that things like the Oscars and Razzie are about excellence in film making, when in reality they are about money and power.
Er, I’m pretty sure no one but Imnotmrabut thinks that the Razzies ‘are about excellence in film making” given that they are in fact about the complete opposite of excellence in film making.
Sundance and Tribeca are all about political luvvies and virtue signalling …. and then some professionals decide that they want a festival of Film where it’s about the Films, the technique and art of making film. They don’t give a tinkers cuss for your politics, genitals, age or bank balance – just your skill and ability in the film genre.
Well, they care a little bit about your bank balance, in that they require all filmmakers to pay an entry fee.
In any industry and endeavour, having your peers telling you that you are the best generally beats all other external validation into a cocked hat. P¬))
Cassie knew she was good – now her peers are telling her she is – and all the others are wondering how they missed the Diamond in the Rough and how much it has cost them! If nothing else, one should be laughing at the Industrial Scale Prat Fall.
In a weird coincidence, Industrial Scale Prat Fall is also the name of my Nine Inch Nails cover band.
Another defender of The Red Pill argues, apparently seriously, that the relative obscurity of the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema actually proves that the award is worth more than one of those silly Oscars. Someone called StrixTechnica writes
If this is a ‘fest for fellow film-makers first and foremost, it’s unsurprising it garnered little press and it hints at a very high standard of both entries and judging, making the ‘best of festival’ award even more significant. It also lends some credibility to the claim that it’s an industry award rather than a politicised celeb-fest like the Oscars has become (or always was).
Also, did you ever consider that maybe all of those who vote for the Oscars actually really really like The Red Pill but were afraid to stand up and say so because the stormtroopers of political correctness might round them up and put them in some sort of Hollywood-based re-education camp?
It turns out that StrixTechnica has entertained a similar scenario.
I’d love to know what the Oscars’ judges privately thought of it. There is more support in Hollywood for this sort of thing than you might imagine, but nobody dares say anything publicly for fear of reprisals and risk to livelihood. You’re going to have to take my word for that, because my exact reasons for saying that were disclosed in confidence.
This is probably the same reason why my short film “The Sarkeesian Effect Trailer” didn’t win the Oscar for Best Picture, or even Best 43-second-long YouTube Video With a Cat in It.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj4r_dTQ-Ac
Screw you, political correctness!!1!
Anyway, big congratulations to Cassie Jaye, for winning some awards from a festival that’s kind of small but that is not, as far as I can tell, widely considered to be a money-making scam!
@Scildfreja
Ah, come now, that’s not fair! They generously assent to keeping women past 25, the point at which we cease to be sexually attractive and therefore have nothing to offer them, just so long as we pay in advance for this immense privilege by spending our entire youths in their company. See? That’s much better.
Alan, I really like Richard Evans’ book on the case, Lying about Hitler.
I had a friend who got so obsessed with the case that she read through the transcripts and would read out choice passages to me (generally in which Irving made an utter fool of himself).
I only live a few hours away from Golden, British Colombia. I can’t believe I haven’t taken this opportunity to create an international film festival where we give away awards in the shape of a globe (because it’s international, you see). Certainly there would be no relationship with the Golden Globes, why would you even think of that?
@ David F
The trial was interesting at the time, but it’s perhaps even more relevant in Trump’s post truth era.
I saw some bits of it. Initially Irving was quite confident and eloquent. The difference is though he could not duck
being challenged. Then he just fell to pieces under cross examination. And you know you’re stuffed when a judge politely asks: “It may be I’ve just misunderstood you Mr Irving, so perhaps you can help me with this…?”
@Alan Robertshaw
I’ve been looking forward to Denial for months and, in part because of it and because I’m cash-strapped, asked for an Odeon gift card for Christmas.
Today I checked next week’s schedules… Odeon isn’t screening it! So I shall have to hunt out the pennies and go to the independent cinema to see it. Upside, they let you drink wine. Downside, that costs even more money.
But I’m excited, and it’s weirdly topical (in an “I can’t believe I still have to protest this shit” kind of way). So thank you for sharing the link to the judgment months ago that got me so excited to see this film in the first place.
Iamnotmrabut’s paragraph about all the horrible, horrible problems that will be caused by the urgent need to print new DVD covers is weird in about a dozen different ways, and perhaps the weirdest is that it is completely unnecessary. I mean, this is actually a common situation–it happens every awards season–and the standard solution is the simple, relatively inexpensive one of printing stickers that announce the awards won by the film, and putting those on the DVD covers. When there is another printing, the cover art may be altered to include the awards, but I doubt that it has ever happened that existing covers were simply junked.
Of course, this is done only when the award is a big one–Oscar, Emmy, Golden Globe, at the very least a People’s Choice Award. I doubt that the Mary Austin Award for Excellence in Producing a Documentary will be seen as requiring the effort.
I have nothing intelligent to add to any of this, but I will say that on my own computer, just after David mentioned the DVD’s cover art, his text was interrupted by a picture of four manly dudes captioned ‘Children of Sodom: 20 years Down and Dirty’. Which I found somewhat perplexing for a few seconds, before I realised it was just an ad and not, infact, the cover for the DVD of ‘The Red Pill’.
Yeah, I smell nepotism. Cassie Jaye seems to be a long time friend of Stephen Savage, who is the founder of this obscure film festival. She played the lead in his 2007 film Cosmic Radio.
Jaye’s profile on LA casting also lists her as lead actress in another Savage film called Monkey Grip, but google couldn’t confirm that such a film actually exists. Searching for Stephen Savage monkey grip, all I found was Cassie Jaye’s casting profile.
My take on that is an HK-47 version of a sexbot. It’s called “Meatbag, Will You Light Some Scented Fucking Candles?”
So, I’m not the only one who noticed that, if you take the nonsense about the IIFC being legit cos it’s by filmmakers and about filmmaking and replace that shit with vidya jargon, its indistinguishable from a #gg screed, right?
Haha, this is the message one gets when you look up that festival on Wikipedia
.
Imaginary Petal: There is a fairly prominent Australian film entitled “Monkey Grip”–and, for that matter, an Australian documentary entitled “Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip,” about the novel on which the film was based. So, maybe the movie Cassie Jaye was in changed its title to avoid confusion, in which case her profile may merely be out of date and not dishonest.
Though, certainly, resume padding is not rare in the film world. (Famously, when Quentin Tarantino was starting out, he filled his c.v. with jobs on various real but obscure films, on the assumption that the people he was sending it to would not have seen the films, and so could not ask questions that would trip him up.)
This really is a small festival with about 60+ films but they offer over 55 awards so it must be hard to not get one.
http://www.idyllwildcinemafest.com/wp-content/uploads/IIFC-Program-2017.pdf
That’s interesting, since I suspect MRAs probably agree with the commonly expressed idea that giving kids awards just for participating is horrible.
This all reminds me of a glorious facing-page juxtaposition of Time Out ads circa 1990.
On the left, taking up a full page, was Michael Winner’s Bullseye!, widely acknowledged both then and now to be one of the very worst films of the last three decades. It was festooned with glowing quotes, but on closer examination they were invariably from tiny local papers with names like the Wolverhampton Express.
On the right, taking up an eighth of a page, was an ad for a revival of Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped. It had just one quote, but it was from a properly heavyweight writer and source, and said that it was one of the greatest films ever made.
Guess which was more persuasive.
I won an award for some software I wrote once!
My first thought on hearing the news wasn’t to thank my agent and friends and god. It was “Bloody hell, if I won, who came second?”
Hello.
Well, if making an horror movie, what about a “Who goes there by their own way ?” ? Or “Ten little MRAs” if you want a bit more of mystery than horror ?
Have a nice day.
@Flora
At one time I lived in downtown Hollywood. Oh, the possibilities I gave up when I decided to move. . . .
Oh wait. No, I didn’t. I can call my film festival anything I want.
The Sun Dance Film Festival (no relation, of course, to the Sundance Film Festival).
Sundance is a place; Sun Dance is a concept.
Ta-da!
@David
I loved your trailer. The feline costar was particularly charming, amusing, and beautiful.
And this is not a criticism, just an observation: The human costar’s face wasn’t completely onscreen. Maybe 1/8 of his face could be seen. I’m sure you’ll fix that in the completed film.
10/10
Will watch again, right now.
When will the entire film be released?
OT
Four more journalists get felony charges after covering inauguration unrest
A documentary producer, a photojournalist, a live-streamer and a freelance reporter facing up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine if convicted
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jan/24/journalists-charged-felonies-trump-inauguration-unrest
I have a Phd in filmolology from UC Diplomamill (which is much more prestigious than Harvard or Oxford) and as a certified fimolologist I can tell you that all of us certified authentic filmolologists think Cassie Jaye’s film is better than any other film, past, present or future.
Also the Wossname Film Festival you mention is totally not the movie awards equivalent of a diploma mill, no siree.
They were showing this in limited release where I live last week (possibly attempting to cash in on the inauguration?). Apparently, Jaye was there to provide a Q&A session with some guests so special that it didn’t even mention their names on the poster.
I’m sure this was a very important event for the Norwich film industry.
Er – has anyone pointed out that the awards CJ won, the Mary Austin Awards, were, um, well, kinda affirmative action type awards? I feel that’s something many MRAs might have issues with?
From the program on the site:
‘Sunday afternoon finds IIFC closing out the year with its annual Awards Ceremony and presentation of the prestigious
Golden Coyote Paw awards in major categories such as Best Film, Acting, Musical Score, Cinematography,
Screenwriting, Documentary, as well as the always outstanding Mary Austin Awards for Excellence in Filmmaking by
women. The 2017 nominees have a great deal to be excited about, as this year has proven to be the best for top rated
and entertaining independent films.
@Vyv
Maybe its ok, just so long as they’re making films about men.
@ weatherwax
I hope you ‘enjoy’ the film; if that’s the right word.
The issues now though are even more relevant perhaps than at the time of the trial. The only downside about the film is apparently Irving is enjoying a bit of a resurgence on the back of it.