'Audrie & Daisy' doc: Why sex offenders talked, other questions answered
The documentary Audrie & Daisy is an empowering and aggravating look at sexual assault through the stories of two girls: Daisy Coleman, who has come out on the other side of an assault when she was 14, and Audrie Pott, who committed suicide after nude photos taken of her after an assault went viral when she was 15.
The movie -- which is streaming on Netflix and playing in select theaters -- is 95 minutes of powerful stuff that leaves you emotional and in a pile of wet tissues. It also might leave you with some questions.
We sat down with Coleman, now 19, and filmmaker Bonni Cohen (who directed with Jon Shenk), to talk through some lingering questions from the film.
How did filmmakers get sexual offenders to talk for the movie?
Audrie & Daisy opens with "John_R" and "John_B," two men who were charged with the wrongful death of Audrie Pott. Since the men were minors at the time of the sexual assault, their identities are hidden. But even so, it's surprising that the men would talk on camera.
"The Pott family filed a wrongful death suit against the boys, (then) went back to court with a civil suit they settled out of court. We got a call one day that the settlement (of the civil suit against the boys) required that the boys needed to sit for a 45-minute interview for our film," Cohen says. "So it wasn’t that we requested the interviews, the interviews kinda came to us."
How did filmmakers deal with assailants who seemed to have little remorse?
Cohen said that she and her co-director initially weren't sure if they wanted to talk to the men who assaulted Pott. Ultimately, they took the interviews, because "we decided that it was sort of our obligation to go forward to see if we could glean anything from them about that night." She says the boys didn't seem to have gained a new perspective on girls a few years after assaulting Pott. When asked what he learned about the difference between men and women after the incident, one boy said something about guys being more laid-back than girls, who like to gossip.
That answer crushed Cohen, who wasn't in a position to teach the boys who were legally obligated to talk to her.
"You wait ‘til the end of the interview, then they leave, and you break down. (My co-director Shenk and I) completely fell apart," she said, almost in tears. "I do blame the boys. I also blame our society."
How did Coleman react to what her town's sheriff said about her "safe" town?
In the movie, Maryville Sheriff Darren White is interviewed, and he emphasizes the safety of his small town, where Daisy Coleman was assaulted.
"I really had to sit back and laugh at what he was saying, especially after he (said on camera), 'Oh, in Maryville no one jumps out of the bush and cracks you on the back of the head and steals your purse,' because, ironically, before he said that, someone literally did jump out from behind the bar and did kill one of the African American football players on the Northwest team," said Coleman. "I just have to take a chuckle with some of the stuff he said... I try to find comic relief."
What is Coleman up to these days, after we saw her graduate onscreen in 2015?
Coleman is in her sophomore year at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo. She's on the wrestling team, majoring in art and has has an apprenticeship at the Gentleman's Ink tattoo parlor in town. As an ambassador of PAVE, she does plenty of advocating on behalf of assault victims and is planning to tour colleges and educate more women about Title IX rights.
Coleman continues to make art, as she was seen doing in the documentary, and isn't shying away from ink with dark themes for her clients. "I actually like (that), because it almost forces my audience to look for the light and the good in the darkness," she said. At film festivals, many people ask her for tattoos, but she doesn't tattoo anyone outside of her shop anymore, like she did on-camera. She discontinued that habit, because "that's totally not legal."