NO! The Rape Documentary - Ending Violence Against Black Women
NO!™/USA/2006
Color/Digital Video/ 94 minutes/Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, & Portuguese
AfroLez® Productions, LLC – Production Company and Print Source
Women Make Movies, Inc. – Fiscal Sponsor
AfroLez® Productions, LLC – Distributor
One out of three women in the United States will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.
“If the Black community in the Americas and in the world would save itself, it must complete the work this film begins.“
~Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author
“I have seen a lot of documentaries about sexual violence in my 15 years as a film programmer, and ‘NO!’ is by far the most well made, riveting, and poignant… The strength of ‘NO!’ in reaching its viewers is significant, it’s scope and ability to compel are astounding- all women can relate to this film.”
~KJ Mohr, Film & Media Arts Programmer, National Museum of Women in the Arts
“This DVD helps raise awareness about sexual assault and violence. Especially useful for counselors working with high-school and ckllege students facing similar pressures and situations.”
~Booklist
“This well-done documentary had a powerful impact…the post-viewing community discussion at the Philadelphia Premiere was so inspiring that the National Sexual Violence Resource Center designated showings of NO! in community settings as the Featured Event for its 2007 National Sexual Assault Awareness Month campaign.”
~Karen Baker, LMSW, Director, National Sexual Violence Resource Center
NO! is the first documentary of its kind!
Produced and Directed over a period of eleven years, seven of which were full time, by Aishah Shahidah Simmons, an incest and rape survivor, this groundbreaking feature length documentary features riveting testimonials from Black women survivors who defy victimization.
Violence prevention advocates, theologians, sociologists, historians, anthropologists, and other leading scholars and human rights activists provide an interdisciplinary context with which to examine sexual violence in African-American communities.
Impacting archival footage, spirited music, transformational dance, and performances from award-winning poets take viewers on a journey from enslavement of African people in the United States through present day.
Winner of an audiance choice award and a juried award at the San Diego Women Film Festival, NO! also explores how rape is used as a weapon of homophobia. Since its official release in 2006, NO! has been screened and distributed to racially and ethnically diverse audiences at film festivals, community centers, colleges/universities, high schools, correctional facilities, rape crisis centers, battered women’s shelters, and conferences throughout the United States, in Italy, Spain, Rwanda, Kenya, Nepal, South Africa, Hungary, Jordan, Burkina Faso, Peru, and Mexico.
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center-the comprehensive center for information, research, and emerging policy on sexual violence intervention and prevention in the United States–designated screenings and discussions of NO! in community settings as the Featured Event during their 2007 Sexual Assault Awareness Month Campaign.
“No man who watches this film - men with sisters, daughters, mothers, lovers - can leave not feeling a greater sense of responsibility to confront this issue.”
~Clarence Lusane, Ph.D., American University
“…Finally breaking the silence, the film shares stories of torment and healing while challenging African-American men and women to seek reconciliation.”
~Ms. Magazine
“Given the level of violence against women in this country, we owe it to ourselves and po future generations not to turn our backs on this film. For in ignoring this film we would once again be ignoring the voices of women.”
~Kevin Powell, Author, Who’s Gonna Take the Weight: Manhood, Power, Race in America
Heartbreaking, personal, and ultimately empowering… Not only does Simmons’ ground-breaking film break a pervasive deadly silence, it reaffirms the power of a Black woman’s truth.”
~Joan Morgan, Author, When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down
“NO! is a film about horrific crimes perpetrated against Black Women and girls. NO! should be mandatory viewing for every Black boy and Black man in America!!!”
~Dwight Williams, Executive Producer of Hustle & Flow and Baby Boy
“…As a rape survivor, I’ve been having trouble expressing my thoughts and fears about what happened to me. The courage of the women in [NO!] to speak out is a new inspiration. I’m telling my friends and colleagues about your film, as I think it’s imperative for women and men of all backgrounds to see it and increase their understanding about violence against women.”
~Cecilia, Chicago, Illinois
“With the eye of a poet and the rigor of a sociologist, Aishah Shahidah Simmons exposes an ugly reality of sexual violence. This is cinematic activism at its finest, as it is both a call to action and an expertly constructed documentary.”
~Gerald Horne, Scholar and Author, Race Woman: The Lives of Shirley Graham DuBois
