“She Said”: The story of #MeToo
Written by Sophie Centazzo. Photo courtesy of IMDb.
“She Said” tells the story of Meghan Twohey and Jody Kantor, two investigative reporters for the New York Times. The two women were at the forefront of exposing film producer Harvey Weinstein for sexual assault and rape of dozens of women, which eventually led to the #MeToo movement.
Twohey and Kantor researched for months, while also balancing their lives as working moms. In their research, they found that dozens of women working for Weinstein’s production company, MiraMax, complained to higher-ups about his behavior. Many of these investigations ended in a settlement. The women were interns, production assistants and even famous actresses, such as Gwenoth Paltrow.
Twohey and Kantor interviewed women across the globe, many of whom did not want to come forward, for fear that Weinstein would come after them in some way. Before the article was published, Kantor wanted at least one woman to come forward. In the end, actress Ashley Judd was quoted on the record about her experience with Weinstein, which led dozens of other women to speak out and share their stories.
After the screening of “She Said,” there was a virtual Q&A with the director, Maria Shrader. Shrader discussed how she wanted to tell this story – not focusing on Weinstein, but on the women who were brave enough to tell their stories and the reporters who dared to tell them. She wanted a narrative that showed how women banded together to put an end to sexual assault in a professional setting.
