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Street Roots • Nov. 27-Dec. 3, 2015 News Page 7 Documentary ‘Yeah Maybe, N o ’ raise what it truly means to consent to sexi BY EM ILY GREEN STAFF W R ITER efore sexual assault on college campuses came into the national spotlight, Kelly Kendziorski, who goes by Kelly Kend, started working on what she thought would be a documentary about rape. Much of her film, “Yeah Maybe, No,” takes place at Reed College, where students were ahead of the national curve in demanding better support for sexual assault survivors on college campuses, Kend said. In 2011, six years after Kend graduated from Reed with a degree in anthropology, the college drew criticism for what survivors called its mishandling of sexual assault cases. A group of students began to write the names of alleged rapists on a stall in a women’s bathroom at the school. Students brought the names out of the bathroom in Kelly Kend, a Reed College alumna, created a documentary about sexual assault that focuses the form of a guerilla art installation featuring a toilet and a name-bearing wall for on a student named Blake, depicted below in artwork from her film , “Yeah Maybe, N o ” all to see. The group gained campuswide their stories as well. Blake was really the support, and Reed hired a new dean to only one that stuck with me through to the tackle sexual assault prevention and help end. And so the film is about him, but it’s the campus better serve survivors. also about my story through his. ' "The film focuses 6n a student name'3 “ Blake. Blake attended Reed College before E.G.: Why make a movie about consent? what he calls “the consent revolution.” His Doesn’t everybody know that no means no? experiences with a boyfriend when he was a K.K.: I think we do all know that, but it’s student challenge mainstream presumptions just not that simple. A lot of people don’t about what constitutes sexual assault. know how to say no, don’t know they can Kend also explores her own experience of say no. I know in my situation I was so being raped in an amusement park at age young, I had no skills for saying no. I didn’t 12. She said she didn’t fully comprehend understand what was happening. I know for what had happened until she was much Blake, one of his assaults happened when he older. was unconscious, so there’s no ability to say Now, at 32, she hopes that her first no there. The reality of sexual assault is that feature-length film will help audiences better it is more complex than just no means no. understand consent and sexual assault so they recognize when it’s happening and so E.G.: Why feature Blake? He’s not your they can provide empathy and support to stereotypical sexual assault victim. survivors. film. It’s not rated but contains sexual As producer, director and editor, Kend content K.K.: That’s exactly why. You get an watched her film about rape morph into a Street Roots met with Kend in late interesting perspective by featuring film about gray areas of sexual consent and September outside of the Vollum lecture somebody who you’re not expecting to hear unexpected victimization. She discovered hall at Reed College, where her film would it from. You can’t fall back into this there are many questions around what it debut in mid-October. stereotype of men aré predators and women means to give consent. are prey if you have a male survivor. Through interviews with experts Em ily Green; Haw did the idea fo t this interwoven with personal stories and E.G.: Your reaction when you found out film come about? animated sequences illustrated by Lucy that one of Blake’s experiences was related to Bellwood, Kend offers a fresh perspective K elly Kend; It really grew out of my own tickling - 1 think ¡probably had a similar on a complicated issue. She hopes her film experience being sexually assaulted, and reaction. How can tickling be a form of sexual will complement the efforts of activists who that happened when I was really young. assault? are pushing for states to join California and That really shook my idea of what normal is, New York in passing affirmative-consent but I didn’t really ever use those words. I K.K.: Because sexual assault is any sexual laws. thought this was a normal thing that contact that is done without consent, These laws mandate that both parties happened to everybody until I was quite a particularly through the use of force, must express a willing, conscious and bit older. It was through becoming more coercion or manipulation, tickling can be voluntary agreement to engage in sexual aware of feminist writing and really through this really loaded experience where it’s not activities. In other words, silence, the talking about my experience with other playful. It’s enforcing your will on somebody absence of “no" or lack of resistance do not people that I realized, “Oh my God, that was else, and I think as an outside observer, it is equate to consent. rape!” And I had just lived with it for almost really hard to understand how that could be “Yeah Maybe, No" is showing at 7 p.m. 15 years without getting any sort of help. I upsetting. But tickling is a part of sex, it’s a Dec. 2 at Hollywood Theater in Northeast felt that was an important story to share, part of flirting, it’s a part of foreplay, and Portland. Kend will be present to lead a and I tried to find other people to share question-and-answer session following the B when you do that to somebody when they don’t want you to, that is an assault. E.G.: Do you feel like, after going through this whole process of making this film, what sexual assault is and isn’t is more clear to you now, or did it just add more layers of confusion around it, with all the nuances? K.K.: What I really had to learn is, when a lot of people say sexual assault, what they really mean is rape, and that sexual assault is a broader term, and that sometimes it means tickling and sometimes it means something that is not penetration or is not particularly involving your sex organs. Understanding that can also be just as upsetting is something that I really had to learn, but I can understand that now. E.G.: When you discovered that Blake’s experience was seemingly less traumatic than your own, how did you approach that? K.K.: I did think about hot doing thè film, but it was mostly an eye-opener to take it in a new direction because after the initial shock of it wore off,I realized that was the most interesting thing that had happened and the most interesting thing that had been said between us. I felt like that was an area to explore. It Was a part of this conversation that I haven’t really seen a lot of people talk about yet E.G.; Do you think that because he’s male, it was more difficult for him to talk about his experiences and maybe it seemed a little more loaded to begin with? K.K.: I think so. For a lot of men, you have masculinity, and it’s not accepted to be weak. It’s not accepted to be a victim. You’re also expected to always want to have sex. Particularly gay sexuality, there’s all these expectations around i t So I think for Blake to come forward and say it was an assault, he had to overcome a lot of stereotypes. E.G.: Were you planning on telling your own story when you set out to make this film ? K.K.: I was on the fence about i t It’s been really hard to tell my own story. Just in the practical sense of editing the film and watching myself tell it - at least a hundred times now - and that part is really challenging, to keep going over it again and again, being like, “Should I say it this way? Should I say it that way?” And watching the artwork get made. Having to approve artwork of my own sexual assault is not something I recommend anyone else have to do. It’s weird. E.G.; Is assault sometimes assault because o f the way a person on the receiving end is feeling? See CONSENT, page 13
