Gymnastics, Yoga and R Kelly: 5 documentaries about sexual violence

Real life turns out to be darker than TV shows, and the topic of sexual violence is no exception: few things make such a powerful impression as the memories of victims. We have already talked about a documentary series dedicated to the story of millionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who was repeatedly accused of involving minors in the sex business. Now we have collected five more interesting documentary projects about violence that you can watch on Netflix right now.

A documentary film dedicated to one of the most large-scale and high-profile cases of sexual violence in recent times. At its center are gymnasts who have faced sexual violence from the former doctor of the US women's national gymnastics team.

"Athlete A" is the code name given to the gymnast Maggie Nichols — the first among all the women and girls who accused him of violence. In total, the court in 2018 heard the testimony of more than one hundred and fifty victims — Nassar was sentenced to 175 years in prison.

The film focuses not only on situations of sexual violence, but also on gymnastics as an industry that makes such cases possible.

"Athlete A" tells about the strict control in gymnastics in the United States (the work in the national team is based on harsh Soviet methods) and what parallels exist between strict training methods and sexual violence.

Athletes recall that training taught them not to trust themselves and their own feelings, to defend their boundaries — similar processes occurred with them in situations of sexual violence. They also pay attention to the consistent long-term policy of silencing violence in the national team.

Even if you have never heard the name Bikram Chowdhury, you may be familiar with how he became world famous. Choudhury is the creator of bikram yoga, or "hot yoga": in this type of yoga, a sequence of twenty-six asanas is performed in a heated room. Bikram yoga turned into an empire: its creator conducted expensive trainings, where he taught yoga teachers his methodology, which brought him millions of dollars in income.

But fame and recognition are only part of Bikram's biography. What begins as a story about a bright and eccentric person turns into a description of the harsh treatment of students and insults that were a frequent element of classes. There are also cases of sexual violence here: several students accused Bikram of harassment and rape.

"Bikram" explores in detail the phenomenon of the guru (this is not the only case of violence in yoga) and how a person with power and status acts in a close community. Students also depend on Bikram professionally: those who want to get the opportunity to teach according to his methods and with his approval have to endure.

The film also approaches another difficult problem: what if what a person has created is important and valuable for many — but the personality of this person and his very work are directly related to violence. Much attention is paid in the film to how the Bikram yoga community reacted to the accusations-and why not everyone is ready to stop supporting Bikram.

The film, which premiered at Sundance, tells about several cases of rape of teenagers and how society treats the victims who have publicly told about their experiences.

The film focuses on the stories of Audrey from California and Daisy from Missouri: both of them, before reaching adulthood, experienced sexual abuse by those they considered friends, both faced cyberbullying and bullying after they told about what happened publicly. However, for all the similarity, the end of the stories of both girls is very different.

And, of course, the problem concerns not only them — there are much more girls who have faced violence, and not everyone is ready to go to the police. The film also tells about how the system works when it comes to violence.

Here you can also see parallels with Russian justice — for example, when the laws understand rape very formally and consider it only situations when the rapist used force.

The synopsis of the film sounds almost incredible, if you do not know that it is based on a real story. "Abducted in plain sight" tells about the actress Jen Broberg and her family: as a child, Jen was molested and kidnapped (twice!) a neighbor and a family friend. Everything was happening almost right in front of her parents.

Much of the story seems impossible and as if taken from the series: how the rapist deceived Jen, based on a fantastic story about saving the world from aliens, how the girl's parents ignored the warning signs and how the criminal managed to manipulate them to get his way.

Many things in the documentary cause just anger — first of all, the actions of the girl's parents, which only aggravated the situation. The heroes of the film, however, believe that its topic is more complicated: Jen Broberg herself says that her family told about the experience to show how easy it is to miss the signs of child abuse — everything happened in the seventies, when the problem of pedophilia was perceived differently, and there was much less knowledge about it.

The acclaimed documentary series first appeared on Lifetime. "Surviving R Kelly" tells the story of a musician who for decades used his position and influence for the sake of violence. Rumors about R Kelly have been circulating for decades — he was accused of repeatedly having an affair with underage girls.

Many of the arguments were public. For example, it is known that in 1994 he secretly married the singer Aliya — they met when she was only twelve, at the time of the ceremony he was twenty-seven, and she was fifteen (she lied in the documents). The marriage was soon annulled.

In addition, R Kelly was repeatedly sued for sexual abuse, he was also accused of distributing child pornography, and in a 2017 BuzzFeed investigation, he was accused of forcibly detaining several women for sex.

The documentary series managed to do what it had not been possible for years — finally draw due attention to the words of the victims. Shortly after the premiere, R Kelly was charged with numerous legal charges of abuse of minors, the label broke off relations with the musician, and celebrities, including, for example, Lady Gaga, publicly apologized for working with him in the past.