Whistle

Whistle is a narrative short film based on personal experience that addresses the prevalence, dismission, and underreporting of sexual harassment and bullying in middle school.

  • Rachael Valentine Acosta
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Screenplay, Short Script
  • Number of Pages:
    3
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Writer Biography - Rachael Valentine Acosta

Rachael Valentine Acosta is a young queer Latina filmmaker from Houston, TX. She is known for her feminist satire sketch comedy videos on YouTube where she has over 45,000 subscribers and 6 million views. Her work has premiered in festivals such as SXSW, UIL Young Filmmakers competition (2015 State winner), The New York City Independent Film Festival, and has been featured on Huffington Post, Funny Or Die and TruTV. She has spent the past 3 years freelancing in Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and Los Angeles on different narrative features, documentaries, short films, music videos, network television shows, commercials, and virtual reality. As well as, pursuing a degree in Communications and Film Studies at Lamar University, interning at SXSW (Film Tech) and the ATX Television Festival (Social Media and Communications).

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Writer Statement

Whistle is based on a personal experience that I initially dismissed, though it was incredibly upsetting at the time. I failed to recognize the seriousness of these behaviors partly because teachers failed to address them. Most anti-bullying programs, teachers, and school officials fail to recognize that sexual harassment is a prevalent issue in even primary and middle school. In this “#Metoo” era we are calling out predators in positions of power, but we also need to teach the next generation intimacy literacy and bystander intervention. Although this is a personal story, the script is backed by research. I have hosted read-throughs and workshops working extensively with students, teachers, academics, and other victims to portray the story as realistically as possible. They have helped me make the story a widely relatable and contemporary one.