"Sacey/Spa" by Melody C. Miller Review

One thing that i felt the director handled well in this documentary was both sound design and their placements of the shots. They chose to show the speaker's face in the interview and it was extremely more powerful than if they decided to hide the raped victim's face. The reason that this is so is because by showing us their faces we can see that the girls truly are young women, and no older than their late teens.


The narrative is told by the victims themselves, instead of by a witness or someone who has simply heard about the crimes. This makes it much more personal. The women are telling us their life story, and they speak so fluidly that it feels like the experience wasn't necessarily "special" or rather a shocking experience. This communicates how frequently women are victimized, and how people aren't aware of these crimes even though they are occurring in neighboring cities, or even in the cities that they live in. Oakland for example is the city that was focused on and Oakland is only across the Bay from San Bruno. It is quite remarkable and appalling that this is true. Then the director decides to actually show us women who are currently out on the streets "working."

It's distressing that the police do nothing about these women who unfortunately were forced to lose their dignity at a young age. The women speaking also explain how "this is our fight" and that in order for justice to come that all people must cooperate with the law instead of living in fear and hiding the truth from officials. Still, i feel that the police officials should do more about these rape victims because 1 in 5 women being raped and 1 in 10 boys being raped is just such a high percentage that it makes one questioned when they too shall be victimized. However, it is warming to know that their are organizations such as "Missy" who are aiding these women. Indeed this documentary thoroughly informs its audience and definitely myself about the corruption on the streets in this world.
The sound design really creates a sorrowful tone for the piece. In the opening shots


the women's eyes and bloody faces already convey the painful experience that the young women endured. But the choice to focus the camera on only the eyes adds more sympathy and emotion to the shot. This of course is intensified with the musical score that continuously brings the viewer into a sorrowful mood. A mood that makes the audience feel the pain or try to emulate the pain that these women faced. A pain that won't stop until the message of stopping rape and child abuse is heard. This documentary does a great job of sending this message, but it is up to the viewer to choose to listen to it or to ignore it.