Unless you've been hiding under a rock recently, you've probably heard of "The Red Pill" documentary film. I finally got around to watching the controversial documentary and wanted to share my thoughts.

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For the uninitiated, the idea behind The Red Pill is reasonably straightforward. A feminist explores the mens rights movement ("MRM") and documents her experiences and thoughts along the way. Award winning film maker Cassie Jaye had previously worked on similar subjects but apparently wasn't expecting such a turbulent film-making process from conception to shooting, fund-raising, and promotion.

Being a card carrying feminist, Cassie (pictured below) expects the worst from the start, and this is compounded by media reports of MRAs being misogynists, trolls and racists. As she conducts interviews with MRAs (Mens Rights Activists) Cassie finds herself questioning her own beliefs and opinions. The MRAs make some compelling arguments and her increasingly conflicted mindset is palpable. So Cassie interviews some feminists and therein lie the foundations of the movie; Both a personal journey for Cassie, and a reasonably balanced bit of soap-boxing for both sides of the argument.

The story of the films conception (and reception) is as interesting as the documentary itself, if not more so. After filming, Cassie was relying on a Kickstarter campaign to fund post production and promotion. When certain feminists got wind of Cassies lack of feminist bias, much of the funding was withdrawn. It was dead in the water until conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos asked fans to support the film, which they did, in their droves.

Protests at screenings only served to stir up hype, and The Red Pill is now one of the most successful documentaries of our time. It's currently available for streaming or download from all major media outlets, except Netflix, for some reason.

Whether you're a feminist or not, I think the film is worth a watch. I don't have a dog in that race (I'm a moderate liberal, egalitarian & free-speech-advocate, if you must know).. but found it very interesting to watch, if a little slow. Certainly, from my perspective, I felt the MRAs and feminists were both given plenty of time to get their views across, and it's a shame so many (of the more radical?) feminists out there feel the need to protest and censor a film that's nothing more than a handful of interviews and some of Cassies somewhat wishy-washy observations.

I was disappointed that the controversy surrounding the films funding wasn't covered. I expected they might shoe-horn it in at the end, but they wrapped it up with some fairly predicable musings from Cassie. Regardless, as a thought provoking documentary with some powerful interviews, and very relevant, contemporary subject matter, I'd gladly recommend this film.

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Have you seen The Red Pill? What did you think?

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Portraits - Wikimedia Commons.