*The brutal gang rape of an African American woman in 1944 Alabama, the all-too-familiar injustice that followed and echoes of the case in today’s #MeToo movement are brought to light in the documentary “The Rape of Recy Taylor,” which has its television premiere Monday (July 2) at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Starz.
Taylor’s rape by six white men and her courage in reporting the assault was cited by Oprah Winfrey in her rousing 2018 Golden Globes Cecil B. DeMille Award acceptance speech. “I hope that Recy Taylor died knowing that her truth, like the truth of so many other women who were tormented in those years and even now goes marching on,” Winfrey said.
The film, from director, producer and writer Nancy Buirski, features first-hand recollections from Taylor’s brother Robert Corbitt and late sister Alma Daniels, as well as limited contributions from Taylor, herself, who is shown frail and wheelchair-bound at the end of the film. Sadly, Taylor passed away at age 97 on December 27, 2017 – three weeks after the documentary’s release.
Her rapists avoided trial twice, when two all-white, all-male juries refused to indict. Buirski includes separate interviews with the brothers of two of the six defendants, both sharing the belief that their accused siblings were good boys that simply got in with the wrong crowd.
Rosa Parks’ pre-Montgomery Bus Boycott involvement in Taylor’s case is given ample attention, including her stubborn refusal to back down from a town sheriff hell-bent on keeping the case away from the NAACP, where Parks worked as an investigator.
Due to a limited amount of corresponding video available for the 91-minute film, some of the footage comes from “race films” of the ‘20s and ‘30s that featured black women being preyed upon by white men in power. Other filler footage is simply long stretches of dark road or woods, a constant visual reminder of where Taylor was violated.
Buirski frames Taylor’s story as part of a long history of black women being subjugated sexually and physically by white men in power. Slave owners, of course, are squarely in the film’s crosshairs. Taylor’s decision to pursue justice despite this history – amid the intimidation of local law enforcement and the court’s blind eye – gives “The Rape of Recy Taylor” both resonance and painful relevance to the current #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.
The documentary had its World Premiere at the 2017 Venice Film Festival and was awarded the prestigious Human Rights Nights Special Prize. It will air exclusively on Starz Monday, July 2nd at 9:00 pm ET/PT and will be available exclusively on the Starz App.
Watch the trailer below:
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