'MOLKA' (몰카)

Seoul, South Korea | Film Feature

Crime

Gaze Docs

1 Campaigns | Seoul, South Korea

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This campaign raised $6,142 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.

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MOLKA is a timely and urgent documentary about digital sex crime in South Korea that seeks to expose how the intersection of unchecked rape culture and ever-evolving social media technology is creating a silent and deadly epidemic, with far reaching consequences for digital citizens everywhere.

About The Project

  • The Story
  • Wishlist
  • Updates
  • The Team
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Mission Statement

We are a majority women team making a film to educate, inform and transform dangerous stereotypes about sexual assault, survivors and online abuse in Korea and internationally. Through stories of survivors and activists we unflinchingly ask: how has this happened? And what will it take to change?

The Story

 www.gazedocs.com

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#BreakTheLens #렌즈깨기  #GazeDocs

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[Below: protesters outside Seoul Central District Court]

 [Above: Lia at protest]

 

Brief synopsis

MOLKA is a crime documentary that seeks to expose how rape culture - a culture that normalises and trivialises sexual violence - lies at the heart of the digital sex crime epidemic in South Korea. Our story is told through the journeys of survivors and the culture-shifting work of activists in their ongoing fight for justice.

With the help of an ever expanding supporting cast of police, lawyers, programmers, experts, educators, politicians and community groups, the film explores the intersection of an unchecked rape culture and social media technology. Our goal is to incite urgent and critical discussions about accountability and bystander intervention in answer to two centralised questions: How has this happened? And what will it take to change?

 

What is 'Molka'? What is digital sex crime?

 Digital Sex Crimes are a form of sexual violence, in which digital devices and online spaces are used to perpetrate abuse. They involve non-consensual filming, theft, manipulation and dissemination of a person's intimate imagery and information. In Korea, like many countries where a woman's sexuality is stigmatised, these crimes are targeted overwhelmingly at girls and women. 

‘Molka’ itself is a trivialising slang term that literally translates to ‘hidden camera’ (which should be referred to as 'non-consensual filming'). It refers to the specific phenomenon of women and girls being filmed on phones or with spy cameras in the least expected situations - from the cubicles of public toilets, on the street, at school, at work or even in the privacy of her own home - with this content being distributed and consumed for use as entertainment, pornography and ‘humiliation material’ for blackmail and extortion. 

However, the term 'molka' is also only partly representative of the larger spectrum of offenses that can be considered digital sexual crime. While there has been particular focus on the unique use of spy cameras in local and international media about South Korea, the problem posed for women and girls here far surpasses the threat of secret filming alone.

Survivors have reported an expanding web of crimes that involve or have resulted from the theft, dissemination, and manipulation of their image: from hacking, identity theft, cyber bullying, stalking (on and offline) to physical violence, rape, blackmail, sexual slavery and extortion.

 

[Below: Ha Yena speaks on coming of age online]

 

Who are we? 

Gaze Docs is a group of friends and filmmakers who come from the Republic of Korea, the UK, USA and the EU. We are joined together by our passion for documentary film and its capacity for telling stories that can inspire real-world action.

 We hope to create a film that can be used as a tool for education and change, to transform the existing narrative for survivors and to inspire men and boys to join the fight against gender-based violence both in Korea and internationally.

 

Why are we crowdfunding now?

Covid-19 means that we can't continue to stay in Korea in 2020. Over 7 months we've been developing and shooting this project on our own savings. We want to crowdfund now so we can turn our existing footage into a short film/ extended trailer, which we can then use to generate income and apply for grants for the next stages of production, post production and distribution into 2021.

With your help we can:

- translate and subtitle our existing footage
- edit a short/extended trailer
- create motion graphics
- send crew back to Korea to continue filming

 

 'Why Korea?' an International issue

Digital sex crimes and the values and systems that produce it are not exclusive to Korea. Nevertheless, South Korea makes an unparalleled case study, not just because of the way that online transgressions have become so normalised and embedded in their society, but for the outstanding work of the Korean women who have taken unprecedented action in response to it.

It is our intention to use this film to draw mainstream awareness to how digital technologies are increasingly used to perpetrate abuse. Our goal is to make a case for governments internationally to take action, and treat digital sexual crimes and discrimination against women as a serious human rights issue.

 

Long Synopsis

 In July 2019, two young journalism students known as '56 Flame' set out to conduct an investigation into digital sex crime in South Korea. What they found were links to a nefarious web of Telegram chatrooms, where hundreds of thousands of users gained access to abusive and grotesque 'pornography' portraying women and children as young as 10 years old, who had been blackmailed into digital slavery by the chatroom leaders, and forced into filming themselves performing acts of self-mutilation and violation for the entertainment of viewers.

56 Flame immediately reported their findings to the police before commencing a 6 months undercover investigation, seeking out the victims in order to provide them with help and support along the way. These young women were the first people out of thousands of chatroom members casually accessing the rooms to blow the whistle, sparking heated debate about the accountability of online users and igniting a wave of vigilante justice and online activism amongst groups seeking to hold both bystanders and chatroom leaders accountable in the eyes of the law.

The revelation of The Nth Room case is nothing new for women and girls in South Korea. A case where young men blackmailed and threatened young women and minors into performing sex acts online. It features as just the latest installment in a long, dark history of digital sexual violence directed at women who live with the daily threat of spycams, hacking, stalking and having their intimate imagery and personal information disseminated online by strangers, family, friends and sexual partners.

In 2015, the MOLKA narrative began in earnest. It was then that the 18 year old Ha Yena
witnessed a real-time post plotting the rape of a young woman on Korea’s largest
and longest running porn site, ‘Soranet’. This act was the first in a series of heinous crimes -- some implicating public figures and police officials -- that would encourage a new wave of activism against digital sex crimes and propel an explosive mainstream feminist movement. 

MOLKA tells the stories of survivors and activists. The documentary follows Lia, Ha Yena and 56 Flame as they overcome adversity on and offline, working through trauma and exhaustion, under ceaseless threat of stigmatisation and exposure as they fight for justice and transform dangerous stereotypes surrounding survivors, and changing the future for women in Korea.

With the help of an ever expanding supporting cast of police, lawyers, programmers, experts, educators, politicians and community groups, the film seeks to incite urgent and critical discussions about rape culture, accountability and bystander intervention, in answer to two centralised questions: How has this happened? And what will it take to bring about change?

[Above: Korea Sexual Violence Relief Centre speaking after Nth Room trial]

 

What can we achieve?

 

Education & outreach

  We believe in the power of great storytelling to transform stereotypes, beliefs and value systems and - in collaboration with grassroots social justice movements and change makers - act as a valuable tool for outreach and education to stimulate cultural change. As part of this film’s drive to educate and have a real-world effect, we want to work closely with our partners to create an impact campaign that will support the organizers, researchers and women immediately affected by the social injustice presented in our film, in order to advance their cause and raise awareness both in Korea and internationally. 

 To this end, we have secured partnerships with the Korea Cyber Sexual Violence Relief Centre (KCSVRC) and Lala School sex culture research center. This film will support the research that has been done by these groups revealing the extent of the issue of cyber sexual crime and how changes in the existing sex education of schools and in the workplace can dispel dangerous myths and attitudes related to sex and gender. 

 

Changing the narrative for survivors

Those who have been targeted by digital sex crime have reported depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation. In the worst cases, victims have taken their own lives as a result of the trauma. It is therefore our hope that this film will form the basis of an impact campaign that will allow for outreach work with KCSVRC and Lala School to take place in Korean schools, workplaces and universities. We want to empower and encourage men and boys to join the fight against gender based sexual violence, but also to provide positive role models in our main characters to change the existing narrative for survivors.

 Unlike sensationalised news and media on this issue, where those who have been exploited by cyber sexual crime are represented as faceless entities burdened by the shame of their victimhood, we want to breathe life, humour, personality and warmth into the stories of our contributors, and at the same time, represent the depth of their pain, to portray our characters as multifaceted human beings as well as survivors of assault, with dreams, desires and futures worth fighting for.

[Above: Interview with Shin Ji Ye, politician and journalist]

#BreakTheLens #렌즈깨기 #GazeDocs

Wishlist

Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.

Archival licensing

Costs $1,200

We need to be able to pay for news clips and archival footage.

Transcription (Korean)

Costs $500

We need to get our footage transcribed in Korean.

Motion graphics

Costs $560

We need motion graphics for some aspects of the narrative.

Additional campaign costs, fees and extras.

Costs $500

We need to provide rewards, administration, website hosting, advertising, fees and taxes.

Cash Pledge

Costs $0

Production equipment

Costs $2,200

We need to be able to shoot events and interview later this year.

Translation and subtitling

Costs $1,680

We need all of our interviews and footage so far translated and subtitled.

About This Team

Gaze Docs is a team formed by filmmakers of various nationalities to produce a documentary on the subject of digital sex crime in South Korea that has potential to educate & inform on the subject of digital sex crime, as well as support the organizers, activists, researchers and NGOs fighting it.

Director - Anissa Rockerfeller

Anissa Rockefeller has over 15 years of experience working in theatre and film in the United States, South Korea, and Barcelona. She has split her time between community and professional projects. She is a producer and director with additional training in filming and editing. In Korea, she served as the vice president of the Gwangju Performance Project and as the social coordinator of the arts council at the University of Kansas. Anissa has directed, produced and been involved in the creation of commercials, documentaries, short fiction, musicals, plays, and events. Her work has been seen on local TV stations and various international festivals.


Filmography: “Nuestro Muro” (2019), “Help Animals Please!” (2019)

 

Producer: Olivia Neller

Olivia Neller is a filmmaker capable of producing, filming, editing, and creative directing. In 2018 she started her own production company Fondo Studio, producing powerful, character-focused documentaries and documentary-style video content in collaboration with startups, social initiatives and sustainable businesses. Her film "Esto Podría Funcionar" screened on international television stations and won awards at international film festivals in India, Japan and Spain. 


Filmography: "Blind Turns" (2017), "Esto Podría Funcionar" (2018), "Mar De Sueños" (2019), "Help Animals Please!" (2019)

 

Producer: Ieva Zellite

Ieva realised her passion for filmmaking through the experience of living in many countries across the world. Through observations and engagements with diverse cultures she developed a desire for storytelling and discovered a talent for audiovisual production. She was based in Barcelona where she co-directed an award winning documentary with OTOXO Productions and worked as a freelance filmmaker making short films, and videos for commercials and events. Ieva also directed and produced a feature documentary based in China, which is currently in post production.


Filmography: "Design-ability" (2017)

 

Assistant Producer, Coordinator, Interpretation/Translation: Tae

Tae is a talented 2D animator, video editor and art director. She has worked across various genres, in documentaries, movies and animation productions and has been responsible for the production of a number of art and creative events in Seoul. Tae is the creator of the animation work 'Gaze', a video about Male gaze that inspired Gaze Doc's name. Tae's affection for 'natural but precious things' provides the driving force behind her work.

 

Liron Shalit - DOP

Liron Shalit is currently the Director of photography at Gaze Docs. He is a documentary filmmaker, editor and drone operator who has directed and edited documentaries in multiple languages and on varying subjects. His short documentaries have won awards, have been screened in international film festivals and national TV channels. As a documentary filmmaker, Liron believes in the power of film to educate people and encourage a positive change in our society through the experiences and stories of others.


Filmography: ‘This Could Work’, ‘Blind Turns’, ‘The Neuron Screen’, ‘Mar de Sueños’, ‘Help Animals Please!’, ‘Game Changers’, ‘Nuestro Muro’, ‘The Most Ideal Place’

Current Team

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