Narratives thread together in THE UNIVERSITY, a web series following the aftermath of a sexual assault on a college campus. Told through the stories recounted to a Title IX tribunal, THE UNIVERSITY asks what justice might look like for survivors. Originally a five part narrative web series, THE UNIVERSITY is available as a pilot with an unseen ending through Films Media Group for educational screenings. The pilot won Best Web/Pilot at the Los Angeles Film Awards and placed as a finalist for Best Pilot with the Vancouver Independent Film Festival. Star of the series, Carly Van Liere, was awarded Best Actress for her performance at both the New York Film Awards and the Actor Awards, and Writer/Director Juliana Roth was nominated for Best Drama Writing for the series by the International Academy of Web Television.
The series began as a feature script, WHAT WE KNOW, that placed as a semifinalist in the Atlanta Film Festival Screenwriting Competition, a finalist in the Socially Relevant Screenwriting Competition and the Lady Filmmaker’s Festival, a national finalist for a Hopwood Screenwriting Award, and advanced as a web series pitch in YouTube’s partnership with Sundance and ScreenCraft’s Film Fund. We hope for our series to generate conversation around the best practices for Title IX on college campuses and to offer support and connection for survivors and their peers who may feel isolated during the reporting and healing process.
Clips from THE UNIVERSITY screened at the Center for the Education of Women’s Advocacy Conference featuring keynote speaker Laverne Cox and alongside the documentary LITTLE STONES by Emmy Award-winning director Sophia Kruz. Parts of the series are currently being used to train staff in the University of Michigan’s Hospital System on how to work more compassionately with survivors of sexual, secondary, and collective trauma. So far, the series travelled to It’s On Us, End Rape on Campus, Rivertown Film Society, the Center for Safety and Change, the Center for Gender and Sexuality, Voices of Hope, Rockland Community College, Cinema Femme, SUNY - Albany, Safe Center, SERV, Cinema Village, Girl Gaze, Me Too Many Voices, and Pinewood Studios’s Lift-Off Global Network to discuss shifting the culture of sexual violence and will reach more universities, students, administrators, and art spaces in the future.
Now featured in #metoo’s official Resource Library.
Below you will find some behind the scene photos with our wonderful cast and crew (without whom this project would not exist) and discussions on the performances and music in the film. Thank you to everyone for your hand in creating this project.
Writer/Director: Juliana Roth; Co-Producer: V. Prasad; Producers: Michael Shapiro, Andrew Howell, Carly Van Liere, Shawki Atassi, Juliana Roth; Editors: Annie Cohen, Azure Rouet McBride, Juliana Roth, & Shawki Attasi; Camera Operator: Shudi Zheng; Boom Operator: Katrina Duclos; Sound Mixer: Shawki Atassi; Performers: Carly Van Liere, Ben Ahlers, Savanna Crosby, Kevin Corbett, Christy Edwards, Sylvia Shelby Bradley, Rocco Guirlanda, Brooks Incardi, Jo Ellen Pellman, Allie Re, Liesl Collazo, Ken Alter, Maria Wasikowski, Donavan Darius, Jeannine Thompson, Erika Hoveland. Special thanks to Nancy Savoca, Richard Guay, Devynne Lauchner, Sophia Kruz, CEW+, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, the University of Michigan’s Department of Film, Television, and Media, and the City of Ann Arbor and its businesses for your hospitality during filming.
We would also like to thank all of our supporters, advisors, and donors from our Seed & Spark campaign in hopes of turning our series into a film, especially Tarfia Faizullah, Meghann Plunkett, AJ Black-Ken Moore, Martina Savoca-Guay, Emelia Prince Ruyle of Explore Designs, Miranda Means, Sophie Kleeman, Eliza Leighton, Dog Tears, Katie P. Bennett as free cake for every creature, Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez, Rachel Neabore, Angelina Torreano as Citris, Brook Lee McClurg as The Brook Lee Catastrophe, Rebecca Martin, Matthew Seig, Vera Aronow, and Gianna Alessi.
