The Red Pill

Content

The Red Pill chronicles Jaye’s journey beginning as a skeptical feminist investigating what she believes to be a hate movement. She goes on to discover that the movement is different from what she expected and begins to question her own views on gender, power, and privilege. The film discusses numerous issues facing men and boys such as male suicide rates, workplace fatalities and high-risk jobs, false allegations of rape, military conscription, lack of services for male victims of domestic violence and rape, higher rates of violent victimization, issues concerning divorce and child custody, disparity in criminal sentencing, disproportionate funding and research on men's health issues, educational inequality, societal tolerance of misandry, and men's lack of reproductive rights. It includes interviews with men's rights activists and those supportive of the movement, such as Paul Elam, founder of A Voice for Men; Harry Crouch, president of the National Coalition for Men; Warren Farrell, author of The Myth of Male Power; and Erin Pizzey, who started the first domestic violence shelter in the modern world. It also includes interviews with feminists critical of the movement, such as Ms. magazine executive editor Katherine Spillar, and sociologist Michael Kimmel. It also contains excerpts from Jaye’s video diary.

Funding

Director Cassie Jaye initially struggled to find financiers who did not have "an agenda." She mostly encountered people who believed the men's rights movement was a "disease that shouldn't be given a fair hearing." Jaye got the film "off the ground" with her own money as well as money from her mother, a co-producer, and her boyfriend. After it became known that the film would not condemn the men's rights movement, Jaye was unable to find funding to cover the cost of the movie from traditional sources. She instead started a campaign on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, which she called a last resort. The Kickstarter project promised to be a "fair and balanced" look at the men's rights movement. The effort was strongly criticized by some feminists and received support from Breitbart News columnist Milo Yiannopoulos. In the end, the campaign exceeded its goal of $97,000 as well as two stretch goals to raise a total of $211,260.

Alan Scherstuhl's review suggested that many of those providing funding for the film may have themselves been men’s rights activists, thereby creating a conflict of interest. Jaye has said that the suggestion the film was funded by MRAs (men's rights activists) is "a common lie that keeps spreading." One of the largest pledges to the film was by Mike Cernovich, who pledged $10,000 to the Kickstarter project. In a blog post he stated he was "not funding The Red Pill to help MRAs" but that the film will "help all men, and all women, and all children." Cernovich does not identify as an MRA. Jaye stated that "our five highest backers ... are neither MRA nor feminist. I would say three out of five of them didn’t even know about the men's rights movement, but wanted to defend free speech." She also stated that the film's backers and producers would have no influence or control of the film.

Release

The Red Pill had its world premiere on October 7, 2016 at Cinema Village in New York City. It played there for a week before opening in Los Angeles on October 14, 2016. One-time screenings were also scheduled at various locations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

Screening cancellations

The Australian premiere at the Palace Kino cinema in Melbourne cancelled their planned November 6 screening after a petition circulated that called the film "misogynistic propaganda". The Change.org petition was declared victorious with 2,370 signatures. A counter-petition to reverse the decision gained over 8,000 supporters in the following days, characterizing the original petition as an "effort to close down free speech in Australia" by those who wish to prevent "a screening of a movie that discusses issues that they fear might interfere with their agenda." Organiser David Williams was critical of the original petition, stating that nobody who signed the petition would have seen the film. After watching a January screening of the film in Brisbane, Corrine Barraclough said "the message of The Red Pill is compassion" and the film made her "wonder why feminists tried so hard to silence this crucial conversation."

Mayfair Theatre, in Ottawa, cancelled a private screening of the film. Lee Demarbre, co-owner and programmer of the theatre, said long-time patrons and a sponsor threatened to stop doing business with the venue if the film screening went ahead. The screening was organised by the Canadian Association for Equality (CAFE). Justin Trottier, co-founder of CAFE, said the message of the film is that "all human beings have issues — men have issues and women have issues and that what we really need to do is stop polarizing this debate and find common ground." Julie Lalonde, who runs Hollaback! Ottawa, was one of several people who made complaints to the theatre. Despite only seeing clips and not the entirety of the film, she described it as "misogynistic." She said the idea of freedom of expression "is so abused in this country" and that "no one has the right to have their film shown." A screening had been planned for the University of Calgary but was cancelled after email was sent out by the Wildrose on Campus club at the university sent out an email promoting the film that read "Feminism is cancer..." An apology was later sent out and they cancelled the screening.

Critical response

Cathy Young of Heat Street gave the film a positive review, saying it raised important issues that often go undiscussed and made "well-deserved" criticisms of feminism. She criticized the film for failing to devote attention to "the dark side of the men’s movement", however she points out that feminists also "get a pass for equally demeaning and hateful language toward males." Alan Scherstuhl of Houston Press was critical of the film, describing Jaye as a "propagandist" and its cinematography as "amateurish", and claiming that the film fails to demonstrate a systemic cause for men's issues. He states that "the author of men's troubles here is always that vague bugaboo feminism, which we're told is designed to silence its opponents". Bettina Arndt stated that after the successful Change.org petition to cancel the Australian premiere of the film, this criticism was "pretty ironic, given this 'vague bugaboo' persists in trying to silence Jaye’s attempts to tell this story." Katie Walsh of LA Times says that that the film exacerbates the divide in gender politics with its "uncritical, lopsided presentation", believing the film is "tilted in favour of the MRAs". John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a mixed review, calling it "an admirable attempt at evenhandedness whose journalistic and aesthetic failings dilute its arguments."