Rape Stories
In October 1979, Margie Strosser was raped in the elevator of her apartment building. Two weeks later, she asked a friend to interview her about the incident. Ten years later, she remembers and recounts the rape, revealing the emotional texture of the experience and the reshaping of the event through memory.
In a society where violence is rampant, one of the best kept secrets is that rape has become the most common violent crime in America. Yet producer Margie Strosser, a rape survivor herself, discovered that "every time I told my story to someone, they told me one in return." The heart of the video is Strosser's intimate and disturbing monologue about her own devastating experience, the imprint it has left on her life, and her struggle to overcome the trauma and search for renewal. Throughout the video, she confronts viewers with a wide range of emotional responses -- paranoia, self-doubt, guilt and fantasy -- common to many victims of rape.
Rape Stories was produced with assistance from Women Organized Against Rape.
Margie Strosser is an award-winning producer, director and writer in television and film whose projects include fictional works such as Strange Weather and Moon Juice. Recently, Margie was the senior producer/writer for three seasons of Birth Day, the Discovery Health Channel's highest rated daytime show. She and writing partner Cate Wilson are currently collaborating on a romantic comedy and a psychological thriller adapted from a British novel. She also worked on several videos in the Scribe Video Center catalog including Art Is Food, Dance: Heartbeat of a community, and I Used to Teach English. [LINK]
February 8, 1993 - "Expressing Themselves," by Ann Kolson, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Prix du Publique, Montreal International Festival of Films & Videos by Women; London International Film Festival; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York