This Film Is About Rape

Directed by Bonnie Kreps

Canada, 1977 (documentary, 30 minutes, colour, English)

Film Description:
"Documentary film about myths about rape: who gets raped; who rapes; what rapists say and what women can do about rape. It includes real accounts from women who have been raped or sexually assaulted. Other subjects covered in the film include: facts about rape in Canada; a rapist talking about his crime; rapists as 'the actors of the socially-constructed masculine myth and male values'; rape as an expression of male sexual dominance and aggression; the risk of hitch-hiking; rape prevention; coping techniques for rape victim; recognizing fear and danger; self-defense classes and counselling rape victims."
-- Library and Archives Canada (source)

Film Description [in French] :
"Ce film explore les mythes courants au sujet du viol : les victimes, les agresseurs, les motivations, les défenses possibles."
-- Jana Vosikovska (source)

Film Credits (partial):
Produced by:	Bonnie Kreps, Sharon McGowan
Narrator:	Anna Hagan
Music:	Ferron
Production Company:	Chesire Films

(sources)

Notes about This Film Is About Rape

Filmed in Vancouver.

(sources)

Quotes about This Film Is About Rape

"Both This Film Is about Rape and No Life for a Woman are very sophisticated from a feminist perspective, and both appear deceptively simple as films. In each case the film moves from a composite picture of women's oppression and alienation, through individual expressions of awareness, to analysis of the situation and how it can be changed by collective action on the part of conscious individuals—without the assumption that the system is either innocent or irresistible."
-- Barbara Halpern Martineau (source)

"A rape film made in Vancouver has won an award at the American Film Festival in New York. Called This Film is About Rape, it was directed by filmmaker Bonnie Kreps, whose credits include work for CTV and W5. The B.C. Police Commission contributed $15,000 toward production costs and the project received other grants, according to Dorothea Atwater, rape prevention project co-ordinator for the Commission. Atwater said total production costs of $30,000 were offset by National Film Board donation of equipment and lab time. Film content was developed by a group of police officers and members of Rape Crisis Centre who overcame philosophical differences to work together, she said. It won second prize in the changing society category of the festival."
-- Victoria Daily Times (source)

Bibliography for This Film Is About Rape

Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites

Kates, Joanne. "All about rape." Review of This Film Is About Rape. Globe and Mail, May 17, 1978.
Victoria Daily Times. "B.C.-made rape film wins award." Victoria Daily Times, June 26, 1979.