I came across this documentary on Netflix and it seemed intriguing. I have a friend who suffered this fate at the hands of an ex and I wanted to learn more about it. However, the film took a very serious and emotionally destructive topic and turned it into a self-glorifying episode of a cheap 48 Hours knockoff.
Anna Richardson is a British television journalist and personality. She interviews several people who have been "revenge porned", other people who are fighting against the practice, and even a couple of guys who have revenge porned former lovers. At one point, she takes provocative photos of herself and posts them on one of the sites to see the reaction she would get. Think of it as a "leaked" sex tape effort for journalists. Kim Kardashian would be proud.
Richardson comes off as a cut-rate Chris Hansen (who himself is cut rate). She expresses shock and complete ignorance of the practice which is kind of shocking itself considering she is supposed to be a journalist and the practice has been around for over 20 years. Her attempt to experience the shame and embarrassment of the victims by revenge porning herself is almost as comical as Gwyneth Paltrow spending a day in a fat suit and claiming to understand how obese women feel. Richardson's photos are put on a profile with a fake name, fake email address and her face is disguised. How exactly does this give her ANY sense of a lack of privacy these victims experienced when she went out of her way to ensure the EXACT privacy her documentary is supposed to be exposing.
There is an unintentionally funny scene of her on the phone with her producer debating whether putting Richardson's nude photos on the internet is a good idea. Its obvious the producer wanted to appear concerned and could not be perceived as putting her employee at risk. It sounds very scripted. Several times the producer says its up to Richardson "as long as you're comfortable with it." Its an insane idea and any producer worth their salt would have forbade it no matter how comfortable the reporter felt about it. But sex sells.
While the documentary is poorly produced, there are a couple of really effective scenes. The most effective was pointing out how brave we become behind a computer screen and the things we write, but would never say in person. A theater group performs an exercise where a member is placed in a circle while the other members aggressively speak actual postings from the revenge porn sites at the poor cast member. Even Richardson gets in the act by having the very postings about her photos shouted at her by the ensemble. It was effective and haunting. Too bad the rest of the doc was not as effective.
