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In small-town Steubenville, Ohio, a sexual assault at a high school football party became national news, leading to the sentencing of two key offenders and leaving the American town changed forever.

Synopsis

“Is this football town putting their daughters at risk by protecting their sons?”
- Rachel Dissell, film subject, Roll Red Roll

In small-town Steubenville, Ohio, a sexual assault at a high school football party became national news, leading to the sentencing of two key offenders and leaving the American town changed forever. Roll Red Roll goes behind the headlines and unpacks the factors that led to this attack and shaped its aftermath – from peer pressure, victim blaming and deeply engrained “boys will be boys” attitudes, to widespread cover-ups by members of the community. When a local blogger begins to sift through the social media profiles of those who attended the party uncovering mountains of evidence - the community is forced to accept disturbing truths about their children and about themselves. This true-crime thriller cuts to the heart of global debates around rape culture and unflinchingly asks: “Why didn’t anyone stop it?”

“Roll Red Roll demonstrates this larger context of misogyny and normalization of gender-based violence that’s really hard to capture without being exploitative of the victim.”
– Amanda Klasing, Senior Researcher, Women’s Rights Division, Human Rights Watch

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Credits

Nancy Schwartzman

Director

Nancy Schwartzman is a director, producer, and media strategist who uses storytelling and technology to create safer communities for women and girls. Her debut feature, Roll Red Roll, world premiered this April at the Tribeca Film Festival, had its international premiere at Hot Docs, is currently playing at over 30 international festivals, and will have a robust impact campaign in 2019. For Roll Red Roll, Nancy received the Adrienne Shelly Foundation’s Excellence in Filmmaking Award. The film was nominated for a Cinema Eye Spotlight Award, and she is the winner of "Best in Show" at Bend Film Festival, "Best Documentary" at Monmouth Film Festival, "Best Social Impact Doc" at Chagrin Falls Festival, and "Visualizing History" at Middlebury Film Festival. Her first film, The Line, a short documentary examining consent was used by the White House for a campaign around sexuality, and her follow-up short, xoxosms, was on PBS/POV and BBC exploring love between two teenagers, bridged by technology. A globally recognized human rights activist, Nancy serves on Vice President Biden’s Advisory Council. As a tech founder, she created the White House award-winning app Circle of 6 designed to reduce sexual violence among America’s youth. Circle of 6 is used by over 350,000 people in 36 countries. She has shared her work at the White House, the United Nations, TEDxSheffield, AIDC and more.