It was my privilege to attend a Vigil for Survivors of Sexual Assault as part of a program for Sexual Assault Awareness Month offered by the Women and Families Center in Meriden, CT.  There is a network of Women and Families Centers in CT – with centers in New Haven, Middletown, Guilford and Meriden – and they all provide confidential and free sexual assault crisis services.

The program was both heartbreaking and inspiring.  Heartbreaking because the numbers are up – 70% increase in reports to the Meriden Center of children being assaulted, 62% overall increase in calls to the center, 25% increase in hospital visits.  Inspiring because so many of the speakers – all survivors – have gone on, despite lingering medical complications and trauma, to make positive contributions.

I was thrilled to meet Susan Antilla - investigative reporter and author of “Tales From the Boom-Boom Room” about sexual harassment on Wall Street - at a leadership event at Manhattanville College where I will be shooting “About That Night” next summer. You’ll see the remarks I made at the presentation below:

“Thanks to Susan Antilla for her groundbreaking work.  As Susan outlined, one of the biggest hurdles facing women in the workplace is sexual harassment and assault. 

Unfortunately, young women often face the same sort of hurdles while pursuing an education that would prepare them to take their roles as leaders in the workplace and the wider world.  1 in 3 female students are sexually assaulted in college – these assaults derailing these young women just as they are beginning their college careers.

Manhattanville has always been at the forefront of supporting women in attaining a world class education and is now the filming location for our project to help educate young women in high school and in college orientation programs about sexual assault on college campuses. 

We’re making a feature film about a sexual assault on a fictional college campus that explores the fallout for several young women and men.  And we’re developing content based on the film for distribution to high schools and college orientation programs that raises awareness and includes data, interviews and resources.

We have received a grant from the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund for this work because it supports equity in education.  And as we all know, equity in education is where equity in the workplace starts.  Leadership starts right here.

We will be shooting the film on campus next summer.  And we have set up an internship program for Manhattanville students so that they can have on the job training by working on the film and have a leg up when they start their careers. 

We are very grateful to Manhattanville and proud to bring this project to campus and I am happy to answer any questions after our program here concludes.” 

I am very proud to announce that our film About That Night has received a grant from the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund, a fund dedicated to achieving equity in education.  Our film depicts the fallout from a sexual assault on a college campus in a novel way – re-telling what could have happened six different ways the night of the assault and then showing how the students in question are impacted as they go through the Title IX investigation, hearing and aftermath and try to stay current in school and reclaim their lives. I am very happy that the Graustein Memorial Fund is supporting our efforts to depict this problem and share our film on campuses so that we can inspire students to work toward reducing the number of sexual assaults on campus and removing the obstacles to educational equality.

About That Night has been short-listed (and I’ll be honest - it’s a long list) - for the ScreenCraft Film Fund. Stay tuned…

I shared details about our film with an audience of over fifty producers at the Annual Event for From Script to PreProduction at Light Iron NYC. We received a lot of positive feedback and encouragement - everyone wants to see this film made. I’m also happy to announce that About That Night was just made a finalist for the Ravenal Grant - a fund that supports dramatic features by women filmmakers.

We had a good crowd at the Madison Beach Club on Sunday, July 29 where we talked at length about Sexual Assault on college campuses and brought in lots of folks to help in our effort to raise awareness and lots of donations and interest in investment.

We had a wonderful gathering at a friend's home in Manhattan, sharing concerns and commitment to change things for young women and men at college.  There was tremendous enthusiasm and appreciation in the room and we raised a lot of money!