An Army of Women (2024)

An Army of Women

Appropriately named documentary “An Army of Women” follows a group of ladies in Austin, Texas who unite to bring attention to how their city fails to prosecute rape cases. They take the legal system into their own hands and sue law enforcement for negligence, creating a precedent that will help future sexual assault victims in court.

It’s a commendable aim, and Julie Lunde Lillesæter’s film features some incredible people. Each woman (Hanna, Amy, and Marina) has her own story all equally enraging about watching her rapist go free because the justice system did nothing. What’s truly amazing is not only that they’ve maintained their sanity through such an excruciatingly slow legal process or after encountering countless other systemic justice failures; it’s that they’re still willing to continue fighting even though they must know by now how much emotional pain lies ahead.

Although this movie covers similar territory as others like it do, I never get tired of seeing women portrayed as strong and determined rather than weak and victimized. It’s sobering when you realize that one federal class action lawsuit alone has signed up nearly a dozen more women than any ever filed before claiming sexual assault isn’t prosecuted because men commit most crimes against females.

But really what shocked me most were two statistics given during this documentary: 1) 1/5th of American females will be sexually assaulted during their lives but around 99% of perpetrators walk free; & 2) so many girls get hurt by systems pretending to work for them why should anyone trust anything else?

To show she believes in her characters’ ability to succeed against odds stacked higher than Everest itself, Lillesæter injects optimism into everything from numbers game theory (“An Army of Women”) through speaking truth while refusing silence (“rousing”). And yet these words barely scratch surface level appreciation when considering just how much labor went into producing “An Army of Women,” because this is only one small step taken by some people who wanted change more than anything else they ever desired.

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