Last week, iTunes released Shannon Sun-Higginson’s documentary GTFO: The Movie to the general public. In an interview with TIME, the director discussed her goals and the process of making the film. Sun-Higginson says the inspiration to make the movie started with a video she had seen about harassment in gaming:
For me what was most striking about that video was that this guy was harassing this woman but there were tons of people around. It was an officially sponsored event, and he just felt comfortable enough to harass this woman, he was part of an environment in which he felt like he could do that. One of the things that we really try to get across is that watching it happen to other people is being complicit.
When asked how she felt about trolls and whether she had spoken to any of them, the director replied that the documentary was meant to give voice to women, not the harassers:
I definitely didn’t want to give a voice for those people in the movie. And I shot it almost entirely by myself, and that’s just not a situation I wanted to put myself in.
Sun-Higginson also recounts how her movie kept receiving negative reviews (even before it was released!), and how “hearing those adult male voices was pretty shocking.” The cast includes Anita Sarkeesian, Zoe Quinn, Brianna Wu, Leigh Alexander, and a lot more sharing their thoughts and experiences on sexism in the industry.
Check out GTFO: The Movie here or on iTunes!
—Please make note of The Mary Sue’s general comment policy.—
Do you follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
