Abuse film is an awakening for writer and her audience
By ERNEST HOOPER
Published April 7, 2006
Julie Lynch's satin aqua blue blouse is stained beyond repair, but in many ways it is more beautiful now than the night she wore it to a screening of her movie Getting Off .
Several years ago, Lynch screened her award-winning movie about a sexual assault survivor to an audience in Austin, Texas. Afterward, 60 women lined up to cry on her shoulder.
"My whole left shoulder was soaking wet," Lynch said. "I'll never be able to wear it again, but I'll never throw it out because it's such a great symbol."
Lynch says audiences across the nation have had similar reactions to Getting Off , airing on Showtime.
Lynch, who lives in New York City, kicks off a national tour with a screening of Getting Off at 7 p.m. today at Old Hyde Park Village's Sunrise Cinemas. The cost is $10, and proceeds will benefit the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay's Abuse Prevention, Psychotherapy and Life Education (APPLE) services.
The scheduled speaker for Thursday night's Take Back the Night vigil in Temple Terrace, Lynch is hopeful her Sacred Body Tour will reach survivors and prevent further assaults, particularly among high school and college kids.
Lynch, 42, wrote, produced and directed what critics call a searing portrait of a survivor who finds self-compassion by coming to terms with her history of abuse. The movie is largely autobiographical, but remarkably, if Lynch had come to terms with her personal history, she may have never made the film.
When she began writing the script, her main character was engaging in meaningless sex and drinking heavily to suppress the memory of a gang rape during college. Lynch believed the gang rape served as a metaphor for her own childhood trauma, not something she had experienced while enrolled at Villanova University in Philadelphia.
However, in the final stages of production, Lynch met a music supervisor who knew some fraternity guys from her days at Villanova. Hearing the names of those guys triggered a memory, and suddenly she realized she was the one who had been gang raped. For years, she had suppressed the traumatic event.
"I had no idea in making the movie that I was laying myself out so wide open, that the movie was so truly confessional," Lynch said. "I believe God kept the knowledge of it being autobiographical until I had finished the movie. I may not have had the strength or courage to finish the movie if I had realized it was about me."
Jill VanderKam, a local advocate for sexual assault survivors, is glad Lynch found the courage. VanderKam, who herself was raped in October 2003, first viewed the film during a program for rape survivors in Orlando.
"Watching Julie's movie was tough," VanderKam said. "A lot of the survivors couldn't sit through it. But I think Julie's mission is so important. If this movie can help one person be spared from this experience, then it's worth it."
Following the screening, Julie will lead a discussion focusing on the long-term affects of sexual abuse and the ways in which "survivors can reclaim their mind, body and spirit."
For more information, go to www.julielynchlive.com
Kelly Addington is intimately familiar with perils of sexual assault. As a survivor, Addington and lifelong friend Rebecca Tieder travel to universities nationwide in an effort to reduce sexual violence on campuses through empowerment and knowledge.
The Tampa pair's upbeat approach is called "Let's Talk About IT," and in September, Duke University's women's center booked them to make a presentation at the end of March.
Of course, they had no idea they would find Duke in the middle of an alleged sexual assault scandal making headlines nationwide. Addington and Tieder spoke to Duke counselors and students last week while the campus was embroiled over accusations that three players on the lacrosse team raped a stripper at an off-campus party.
"It was a media frenzy," Addington said. "It was sort of surreal. There were cameras and news trucks everywhere. Reporters had tents set up and were camped out."
Addington said they didn't get into specifics about the lacrosse incident, but they did stress the importance of communicating, understanding the opposite gender and preventing sexual assault.
Later that week, Addington and Tieder were in Atlanta speaking at the Southeastern Panhellenic Conference when they received a call from a CNN producer who heard about their appearance at Duke. Eventually, Addington ended up appearing on Nancy Grace.
"Kelly epitomizes the good that can come out of a bad situation," Tieder said. "That's why we do the work we do. Kelly says, "I'm a victim, but I make a choice to be a survivor."'
When I think about these stories of sexual assault, I realize that I have a lot to teach my daughter. And, really, I have even more to teach my sons.
That's all I'm saying.
--Ernest Hooper can be reached at 813 226-3406 or hooper@sptimes.com