The Words Spoken: Judgement

The Words Spoken: Judgement short film, is the first act of Sticks and Stones Trilogy. The Words Spoken features the powerful impact of The Accusers, who represent the police, prosecutors, community and media, as they choose fiction over truth and participate gleefully in the assassination of the character of a young woman's life, resulting in a virtual stoning with words.

The Words are uttered by The Accusers in a relentless stream. The frame is tightly focused on them as they exist in their own dark world. The Words they choose are not about the young woman. The Words reflect the Accusers own fears and fantasies, in order to create a fictional character as a scapegoat. The Words are loaded with the historic weight of misogyny, scapegoating, and invective. Like the accusations used in all witch trials, they are words that have no basis in reality. The target of the words is not present. This world exists outside of her reality, as she is imprisoned, and has no voice to defend herself. The words are spread worldwide through the media, translated back and forth from one language to another. They become commonplace in the general conversation about the young woman. Listening to the words, they can seem funny at times, horrible at others, but it is in the sheer number of the Words that one feels their overwhelming burden on the victim. The Words have the impact of a virtual stoning.