the story continues > mini-doc transcript - cathy's story

Mini-doc transcript - Cathy's story

• 12 months after completion of the film

Laura (narration): My children are very different, and I was surprised that it was Cathy who followed in her father’s footsteps and became a filmmaker. She moved to Australia, and Michael stayed, married, and took up motor car racing.

Cathy (narration): Seeing my mother shut herself away for all those years, I felt as if I’d lost her, and nothing I could do would bring her back. Finally, in desperation, I proposed going back to Johannesburg, to try and get the case reopened. Laura was dubious at first but she agreed. It was becoming clear that without some form of justice, she would never get over it.

12 months after completion of the film

Cathy: One of the main reasons why I made the film was the frustration and distress that I felt from seeing my mother locked away from the world and unable to heal and unable to recover and knowing that without some kind of resolution, acknowledgement and perhaps some form of justice, that she would never just get over it. So the film was motivated by that frustration. Now that the film has helped my mother so much and she is able to trust people again, and feels she can go out, and show her face to the world, and take part in activities, and be part of society again, that frustration is gone, it’s a really fantastic outcome, and its actually beyond what I ever imagined, to me it’s a bit of a miracle the impact its had on her. I still have frustrations in some of the other stories that I encountered. Glory’s story is still not resolved, and I feel very angry and frustrated about that. I do feel frustration that the case is still not resolved, my mother’s case is still being investigated, two years since I left there. And that feels ludicrous and drives me nuts. I would like to see the justice system be able to respond better to people’s trauma, and be able to get justice in more cases than it does.

Cathy cont.: I think the most beautiful surprise for me has been my brother. I feel he has moved through something really huge in the making of this film and he said to me the other day that he has really learnt empathy. And I think that’s very inspiring for people to know that people can learn that. And that he has shifted from feeling angry, and feeling in denial of it, and not wanting to deal with it, to feeling enormous empathy and understanding what happened to my mother, and being able to apologise and forgive, it’s been a really big experience for my brother. And I’m really proud of him in what he’s done and our relationship is better than it’s ever been, and I think that’s been the best surprise.

Cathy cont.: I think the film is having an interesting response with male audiences, partly because of my brother’s story, and that men feel that there is a place for them in a story about sexual assault, and his journey through denial, and blocking it and the implications of blame are very common and a lot of men respond to that. The fact that he was able to see through that and talk about his feelings is very good that men are able to connect with that. And the police story as well. So I think the film is reaching male audiences and I’m hoping that it will reach a very wide audience around the world and get discussion about sexual assault out in the open, widely discussed in the media, and at least bring the discussion out from under the table so that then methods of dealing with this crisis can be brought forward. When people know just how prevalent it is and the implications and the effect it has on women and families, and men and people who are affected by sexual assault.

Cathy (at awards night): This is an amazing feeling, I am here at the Tribeca Film Festival and we just found out that our documentary won Best Feature Documentary, shared prize with a Palestinian film that’s a beautiful film, so I’m over the moon, this is really very strange, I’m very excited, everybody’s really happy, our distributors here are really happy, this will help the film in Australia, it will help it reach new audiences in America, and all over the world.

Cathy cont.: Me being in the film is very weird because I’m the director as well, so its very strange, and now doing this interview, I’m on this side of the camera, talking about the film, and I hope to put this on the website. I much prefer to be on the back end of the camera, but in this story, I had to be in the film because I was the protagonist in the film so I had to put myself in it. But I’m not going to do it again, believe me. And that’s it. Cut.