Silenced

Abusive lawsuits are frequently used against victim-survivors who speak up about sexual harassment, domestic violence and assault, and the journalists who report their stories. The law, when misused, is another avenue perpetrators use to extend their control and abuse to emotionally and financially drain their victims. Beyond defending these costly claims, there is nothing victim-survivors can do to stop them, unless they remain silent.

That silence is deafening. We are living in the middle of what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared a ‘national crisis’ of violence against women, all the while operating in a justice system which the Australian Law Reform Commission claims, in a recent report, is ‘failing women’.

Solutions are needed to make it safe for women to report harm at work or at home. Urgent defamation reform is one solution, as is the creation of laws which look to ‘throw out’ abusive lawsuits known as ‘strategic lawsuits against public participation’ (‘SLAPPs’).

Working closely with our lead advocate Jennifer Robinson, and partners including the Human Rights Law Centre, we will execute a 12 month impact campaign using SILENCED to call for law reform and cultural change to better support victims of gender based violence and their right for free speech.

SILENCED is not just about the law – it’s about the way our judicial system and our culture fails women. Our Impact Campaign is built around four pillars that will include event screenings, panel discussions, facilitation guides and resources to effect real social change across multiple parts of the sector.

Using Silenced as a key advocacy tool, we will work with law reform advocates, NGOs and universities to facilitate awareness, discussion and education and deliver measurable strategies to enable a safer judicial system and a safer culture for those addressing gender-based violence.

We will use the film to support the HRLC and their alliance’s call for defamation reform and their anti-SLAPP legislation bill to Parliament by working with lobby group, Hawker Britton to facilitate screening events to
Federal Government and ACT, NSW and VIC Government stakeholders.

We will work closely with law and media partners to host screenings of the film to start important discussions with their constituents and staff and facilitate change. To support these efforts we will create a facilitator discussion guide in consultation with key partners to be used in screenings of the film in corporate and community screenings.

A key goal of the campaign is to engage young professionals before they enter the work force and become entrenched in the status quo. We will engage University education partners to adapt our Discussion Guide for university use applicable to law schools, journalism courses, politics, sociology, human rights, ethics, gender studies, social work and psychology.

Stranger Than Fiction Films approached Jennifer Robinson and Dr Keina Yoshida after developing a deep connection with their book How Many More Women? Since then, Jennifer and Keina have become deeply involved in the development of this film, their legal and personal insights offering invaluable context for what will be an incredibly powerful story. Through Jennifer and Keina, Stranger Than Fiction films met Brittany Higgins and Amber Heard, filming with them for a sizzle for the film. An all female team, Stranger Than Fiction hold deep personal connections to this story and a passion for cultural and systemic change. Jennifer and Keina have trusted Stranger Than Fiction Films with this story, and believe in our ability to deliver a film that, through a deeply personal and cinematic approach, will challenge audiences to empathize with these women and demand change.

Ultimately we want victims of gender violence to feel able to share their experiences of trauma without risk of legal persecution adn for media to be able to report on them. Calls to action will work in line with our impact goals. These will be both global and systematic as well as intimate and personal. These include a public awareness campaign that encourages the community to better support survivors, calls for professionals in the legal system to rethink the ways in which legal language impacts those who have suffered from sexual assault and calls for both men and women to think about the way they engage with sexual assault cases that appear in the news. The way they speak to their friends and family about these cases will impact how someone comes forward about their own sexual assault.