After a 2-year festival run, horror short, Blame, is now available for public viewing.
Written and directed by Kellee Terrell (Goodnight My Love), Blame centers on Jason, a young working class father, who finds out that his recently MIT admitted son and his friends have gang raped Lala, a friend who lived next door.
Given that Lala killed herself and the only proof of her assault is a video on the son’s cell phone, Jason finds himself in the midst of a moral dilemma. Haunted by Lala’s ghost, Jason spends the day deciding whether to delete the video to ensure his son’s promising future OR turn Junior into the police.
Blame is a complicated and powerful tale that embodies how sexual assault, victim blaming, race and upward mobility collide.
Since its debut, Blame has screened in more than 30 festivals including the Academy Award-qualifying Cinequest Film Festival and Athens International Film + Video Film Festival and others such as the Pan-African Film Festival, Hollywood Film Festival, International Black Women’s Film Festival, Twin Cities Film Festival, Beloit International Film Festival, the Langston Hughes African-American Film Festival and the Bahamas International Film Festival, just to name a few.
On why she decided to take on this subject matter with such grim storytelling, Terrell said, “It’s important for filmmakers to have their finger on the pulse of society when creating work. So whether it’s Steubenville, Ohio; Missouri’s Daisy Miller; or the 11-year old who was gang raped by 18 men in Texas, our media provides us with constant examples of how we live in and suffer in a rape culture. A culture that not only devalues young girls and women, but blames them for their own
victimization, instead of their male perpetrator.”
She continued, “And so I wanted to know who these people were who blame the victim, who protect the boys and sacrifice the girls, especially in the African-American community. So, I wanted to live with the people — who I don’t really understand — for a day to see is anything about their experiences that can be used to shed light on how to fix this problem.”
Watch Blame below:
