Not a Pretty Picture

In 1962, boarding school student Martha Coolidge was date raped at the age of sixteen. A dozen years later, she worked through the experience in her first feature-length film. A mix of re-enactment and documentary, it explores the event itself and its consequences. It started when Coolidge, along with three of her schoolmates, and a 21-year-old nicknamed Curly, drove to New York City for a party, filling up on cognac and Coke along the way. Hanging out in a borrowed apartment, the partying continues. Unnoticed by the others, Curly lures Martha into another room, where the older and stronger young man rapes her. (Berlinale)