Was “Share” too Heavy or Just Realistic?
Catalina Barraza
“Share”, a film directed by Pippa Bianco is about a young girl who is working through her life after a video resurfaced of her half dressed and unconscious. This film was intense to say the least. I myself came out of the theatre in shock and mostly speechless. Maybe it was the coffee , but I was shaky and didn’t really know how to digest such a heavy movie. My fellow co-bloggers felt the same and expressed that the movie was “hard to watch” and that the film “had no real point”. So this brought about my question, was “Share” too heavy or was it just realistic?
As soon as the credits started rolling, you saw people eagerly leaving their seats. If you stayed long enough though, there was an almost awkward Q&A after with the producers. People’s questions were more anger statements about the ending of the film, they questioned the producers answers by how credible they are to talk for the director Pippa , who was not present. A very educated woman from The Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault (UCASA) , spoke her truth about how this movie could be triggering and continued to ask the producers if they had resources ready, or asking how this film could help the community and bring up these conversations about consent , sexual assault and how the justice/education system handles these type of situations. The producers explained how they finished this movie last week and the plan was to start reaching out to organizations like UCASA about this film soon. It all seemed very unplanned.
To bring back the talk about the ending, it was probably the hardest thing to let this film end. You wanted the happy ending , but we don’t deserve one. The ending is important to my answer about “Share” bringing out the toughest parts of reality. The last scene plays out like this: Amanda (Mandy) played by Rhianne Barreto deletes what could have been the final video evidence to solving her case and finding out what happened that night. After that heart breaking scene of watching her delete her justice, it’s a black screen, for what feels like 1-2 minutes. That scene brought no one closure. People were mad at the choice to have that be the ending, but personally I wasn’t mad at it, I was just speechless.
What this movie taught me was we can’t choose how a victim decides to handle what happened to him/her. Which is hard for even the most woke people I know. You continuously see Mandy’s family, friends, school and even law enforcement try to dictate what she should do, and even sometimes do it for her, without her permission. The ending was for Mandy to take her narrative back. It was an empowering decision and the producers knew it was controversial but wanted to spark a topic about it.
So, to conclude my thoughts and experiences with this film. Share is just so darn realistic , it’s painful. I applaud the creative choices from Pippa the director, the cast, the producers, and the whole crew involved. Your controversial choices, are the ones that do start conversations after the movie, that do leave me thinking about agency for victims and how can I help them without deciding for them. This movie is heavy , it’s gut wrenching at points but it’s a movie that I think most people should see.
*This was originally posted 1.30.2019
