The subject of filmmaker Jennifer Fox's latest film is a hard hitting subject even without the fact that her film is a true story, her story. Recalling her time spent at an intensive horse riding summer camp when she was 13 years old, where she befriended the woman who ran the camp and the running coach/neighbour and later was sexualy abused by the latter. Before the film even starts, it has to sink in that this is a real story and that Fox, who was present at the screening, had bravely shared her story.
Acclaimed documentary filmmaker and professor Jennifer is cutting her latest film when her mother calls her frantically about a story she wrote when she was a child. At first Jennifer waves this off as just a story about her 'older' boyfriend when she was younger. This is the moment when Jennifer becomes curious about a summer she spent with Mrs G, her horse riding instructor and her neighbour/running coach Bill. Jennifer reads through old letters and seeks out her two other girls who were there at the same time and even Mrs G, who she admired so much. Cutting between the present and Jennifer's investigation to what really happened and the past when she was sexually abused by Bill. Coming to terms with the truth and how she remembers the events, Jennifer peices together what happened and begins to see how she survived.
The film is played out as if it were a fictional story but uses documentary like techniques, such interviewing characters while hearing adult Jennifer asking questions. The use of voiceover, whenever Jennifer's story is read out signifies a change to a memory and also to hammer home that she wrote a fictional version of real events. She credits the story she wrote when she was 13 years old for school homework saying the film is based on that. Fox really does lay herself bare through this film and her amazing composure at the screening (although she was very upset when her credits were cut short for the Q &A) is to be admired, not just in how she was able to make the film but in the end result. Laura Dern is fantastic portraying Jennifer, bringing gravitas to a 'character' that could be seen in a multiple of ways. She gives Jennifer a voice where she able to be confused angry and even happy at the memories of the past. A potentially difficult role is carefully constructed into a woman coming to terms with what was done to her and Dern is a superby cast.
A brilliant film that continually provokes questions and isn't afraid to go deeper under the skin, no matter how uncomfortable the audience feels, this needs to be seen.