Weeks before winning the 1998 Miss World pageant, Israeli teen Linor Abargil was held captive and raped by her travel agent while heading home from an Italian modeling assignment. Ten years later, she resolved to confront her past and reach out to other rape survivors. In “Brave Miss World,” made over the course of five years, director Cecilia Peck shows her striking subject encouraging women around the world to speak out. Although this uplifting documentary would benefit from a clearer focus and more precise assembly, it has considerable appeal for the Jewish-interest community, as well as those concerned with rampant sexual violence.
Already a well-traveled fest item, the pic opens Nov. 15 at the Laemmle Theaters in La for a weeklong award-qualifying run. U.S. sales agent Cinetic is negotiating broadcast offers and in talks with a theatrical distributor for a wider release in 2014
“Impassioned and inspiring.”
– LA Times
“The coming together of two remarkable women,
Linor and documentary filmmaker Cecilia Peck.”
– Amy Goodman, Democracy Now.
“Heart-wrenching stories of seemingly typical women and girls.”
-The Daily Beast
“The essential documentary of 2013.”
– Mark Warren, Executive Editor, Esquire Magazine.
CNN.com
July 16, 2014
Emanuella Grinberg
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/16/living/brave-miss-world-emmy/index.html
Nominated for a 2014 Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, the film goes beyond the screen to empower victims of sexual violence to speak up through its website, in community screenings and on social media.
CNN spoke with Peck and Lessner in May about what it took to complete the film and how it continues to have an impact. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity…
Chicago Tribune
June 19, 2014
Debra Kamin
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-06-19/entertainment/ct-brave-miss-world-20140619_1_linor-abargil-brave-miss-world-cecilia-peck
Brave Miss World, Cecilia Peck’s intimate documentary portrait, illuminates the ways the attack changed the course of her subject’s life — and shows that, in this supposedly enlightened age, rape victims who speak out are still often stigmatized rather than championed, even on U.S. college campuses.
The film begins as Abargil launches a website where victims can share their stories and follows her as she travels the globe to visit with survivors of rape, Joan Collins and Fran Drescher among them. Lesser-known women offer direct-to-camera testimony in some of the documentary’s strongest sequences. Their horrendous stories take a toll on Abargil, who’s compelling in her vulnerability and compassion as well as her toughness and anger.
Given considerable access over four years, Peck celebrates Abargil as an impassioned and inspiring advocate while making clear the emotional complexities of her single-mindedness. With typical decisiveness, the beauty queen leaps into action to oppose parole for the serial rapist who attacked her. The conversation in Brave Miss World never touches on rehabilitation for the perpetrator; Abargil’s focus is those who fall prey, and her empowering example is the refusal to internalize such victimhood.
Le Figaro (France)
Jun 23, 2014
Jaq Greenspon
http://madame.lefigaro.fr/societe/combat-de-linor-ex-miss-monde-victime-dun-viol-230614-875716
Dans un documentaire intitulé « Brave Miss World », réalisé par Cécilia Peck (1), Linor Abargil, Miss Monde 1998, fait entendre son combat. Violée deux mois avant son sacre, l’ancienne reine de beauté devenue avocate, milite pour que les femmes brisées sortent du silence.
BRAVE MISS WORLD original film scoring is produced by WHITE NOISE FACTORY in collaboration with:
REMOTE CONTROL PRODUCTIONS
Hans Zimmer
Ben Harper
Martin Tillman
Daniel Lessner
BRAVE MISS WORLD on IMDB
Copyright by Alessio Nanni – BMI Music
All Rights Reserved.