Since the Bare Bones Int'l Film Festival, we've had overwhelming responses from people giving quotes and reviews on our documentary:
One of the best reviews I've ever had, Lita Robinson explained the film better than I could ever articulate, and I agree with everything she says (even the bad). I'm so proud of this review by ScreenComment.com:
NEW U.S. DOC ON ABSTINENCE: CHOICE ALWAYS MATTERS
By LITA ROBINSON - April 27, 2010, Screen Comment, www.screencomment.com
"Daddy I Do" isn't just an examination of the radically divergent approaches that people take when it comes to sex education. It’s a liberal polemic (albeit a very well-reasoned one) and an affectingly personal examination of the effects of sexual choices on different individuals.
Director Cassie Jaye begins with a fictionalized encounter between father and daughter, a ritual known as a “purity ball.” A practice common in recent years in certain conservative swaths of the country, purity balls are essentially rituals in which young girls (the film profiles some as young as six) pledge to place their virginity in their fathers’ protective custody until marriage. Think of it as a 21st century father-daughter dance, with a large helping of quasi-religious zealotry thrown in.
This opening scene comes off as fairly creepy--it’s hard to imagine how it couldn’t. Jaye interviews a conservative family with three young girls, all of whom are going to be put through the purity ball ritual. It’s clear that she regards their almost fanatical obsession with their young daughters’ virginity as slightly unbalanced. However, she manages to elicit a heartfelt response from the father when she asks him whether or not he saved his own virginity for marriage (he didn’t). He instantly owns up to it and then declares he wants to protect his daughters from his own past mistakes.
At a frat house where college boys display irreconcilable levels of lust and right-wing politics Jaye’s unobtrusive interview strategy is remarkably effective; even though they’re interviewed in a group, these boys reveal things that are hard to imagine them discussing over pizza and beer pong. Jaye then zeroes in on one of her main subjects: Denny Pattyn, founder of the abstinence-promotion organization Silver Ring Thing. Pattyn is your run-of-the-mill fanatic, railing against the promotion of condoms as some sort of government conspiracy and casting comprehensive sex-ed programs as nothing short of a one-way ticket to Sodom and Gomorrah. Jaye also interviews some participants in Pattyn’s movement (boys, again) who display a stunning lack of basic knowledge about sex as well as a wide-eyed gullibility that is clearly captivated by Silver Ring Thing’s rock-concert atmosphere. Who’d have thought not getting any could be so much fun?
The heart of "Daddy I Do" is the numerous interviews with various women who have been affected dramatically by their sexual choices. What they all share is a lack of basic knowledge about sex and reproduction as well as a lack of options and resources. As Jaye moves on to interview authors and academics, the leitmotiv comes into clearer focus: in the absence of comprehensive sex ed. people will almost always make the wrong choices.
These first-person accounts fit nicely with what the various talking heads tell us: that epidemic sexual abuse in girls is a predictor of teen pregnancy, that access to contraception and abortion are sorely lacking in most of the country, and that a focus on abstinence-only “education” actually ends up making unintended pregnancy (not to mention disease) more likely. What’s most shocking of all is Jaye’s revelation that Silver Ring Thing actually received massive amounts of federal funding under the Bush administration, a testament to how vehemently the conservative movement endorses abstinence to the exclusion of even the most basic sex education. Indeed, one of the professors Jaye visits neatly displays the correlation between teen pregnancy rates and the political leanings of each of the 50 states; the correlation between conservative voting and higher teen pregnancy is hard to ignore.
This is Jaye’s first feature-length documentary and in some technical areas this is noticeable. The camera isn’t always steady and the film sometimes cuts back and forth between shots too jarringly. But the minor problems this presents do not influence the overall impact of the film.
It’s hard not to come away from "Daddy I Do" agreeing with everything the film has to say. But unlike many other recent political documentaries, one doesn’t feel swindled into agreement; Jaye explores this complex issue in enough depth that the viewer is actually edified, and not brainwashed by it. And that takes true talent. "Daddy I Do" will be shown at the Cannes Festival in May."
Here's a review that popped up on IMDB a little bit ago:
"The way a documentary should be made. This documentary had an exceptional quality; it did not allow the film maker's perspective on this contentious issue to dominate or even raise its head until the very end (and I won't spoil that for you). For the first half of the movie, every time one of the advocates for one side or the other of this issue (abstinence only, sex education) was presenting their case I would think she was on "their side". Then I realized that she was simply allowing all of these people to present their best case and she honored the nature of debate, which SHOULD be present in all documentaries about controversial topics. Until I saw this film, I didn't realize how incredibly rare it is in contemporary documentary films. I certainly haven't seen them all, but I have seen over 300 feature length docs in the past two years. I can not recall another one that came across as this balanced, a stunning achievement. I'm not sure if this was where director Cassie Jaye intended to focus her career energy, but she does have an exciting future as a documentary film maker."
- Ramsey, Rat City Film Society, Seattle, Washington
The Bare Bone Festival organizer said this:
"DADDY I DO is a 'must see' documentary in the vein of Bowling For Columbine and Sicko without the running commentary. An impressive feature length documentary that bring new voices to the decades old debate of sex education and the more recent one of 'abstinence only' indoctrination. It is the kind of film that could h...old its' own at the box office and a savvy distributor would be smart to take it there."
- Oscar Ray, Director, Bare Bones FIlm Festival
Here's a review from a Canadian film blog:
NEW U.S. DOC ON ABSTINENCE: CHOICE ALWAYS MATTERS
By LITA ROBINSON - April 27, 2010, Screen Comment, www.screencomment.com
"Daddy I Do" isn't just an examination of the radically divergent approaches that people take when it comes to sex education. It’s a liberal polemic (albeit a very well-reasoned one) and an affectingly personal examination of the effects of sexual choices on different individuals.
Director Cassie Jaye begins with a fictionalized encounter between father and daughter, a ritual known as a “purity ball.” A practice common in recent years in certain conservative swaths of the country, purity balls are essentially rituals in which young girls (the film profiles some as young as six) pledge to place their virginity in their fathers’ protective custody until marriage. Think of it as a 21st century father-daughter dance, with a large helping of quasi-religious zealotry thrown in.
This opening scene comes off as fairly creepy--it’s hard to imagine how it couldn’t. Jaye interviews a conservative family with three young girls, all of whom are going to be put through the purity ball ritual. It’s clear that she regards their almost fanatical obsession with their young daughters’ virginity as slightly unbalanced. However, she manages to elicit a heartfelt response from the father when she asks him whether or not he saved his own virginity for marriage (he didn’t). He instantly owns up to it and then declares he wants to protect his daughters from his own past mistakes.
At a frat house where college boys display irreconcilable levels of lust and right-wing politics Jaye’s unobtrusive interview strategy is remarkably effective; even though they’re interviewed in a group, these boys reveal things that are hard to imagine them discussing over pizza and beer pong. Jaye then zeroes in on one of her main subjects: Denny Pattyn, founder of the abstinence-promotion organization Silver Ring Thing. Pattyn is your run-of-the-mill fanatic, railing against the promotion of condoms as some sort of government conspiracy and casting comprehensive sex-ed programs as nothing short of a one-way ticket to Sodom and Gomorrah. Jaye also interviews some participants in Pattyn’s movement (boys, again) who display a stunning lack of basic knowledge about sex as well as a wide-eyed gullibility that is clearly captivated by Silver Ring Thing’s rock-concert atmosphere. Who’d have thought not getting any could be so much fun?
The heart of "Daddy I Do" is the numerous interviews with various women who have been affected dramatically by their sexual choices. What they all share is a lack of basic knowledge about sex and reproduction as well as a lack of options and resources. As Jaye moves on to interview authors and academics, the leitmotiv comes into clearer focus: in the absence of comprehensive sex ed. people will almost always make the wrong choices.
These first-person accounts fit nicely with what the various talking heads tell us: that epidemic sexual abuse in girls is a predictor of teen pregnancy, that access to contraception and abortion are sorely lacking in most of the country, and that a focus on abstinence-only “education” actually ends up making unintended pregnancy (not to mention disease) more likely. What’s most shocking of all is Jaye’s revelation that Silver Ring Thing actually received massive amounts of federal funding under the Bush administration, a testament to how vehemently the conservative movement endorses abstinence to the exclusion of even the most basic sex education. Indeed, one of the professors Jaye visits neatly displays the correlation between teen pregnancy rates and the political leanings of each of the 50 states; the correlation between conservative voting and higher teen pregnancy is hard to ignore.
This is Jaye’s first feature-length documentary and in some technical areas this is noticeable. The camera isn’t always steady and the film sometimes cuts back and forth between shots too jarringly. But the minor problems this presents do not influence the overall impact of the film.
It’s hard not to come away from "Daddy I Do" agreeing with everything the film has to say. But unlike many other recent political documentaries, one doesn’t feel swindled into agreement; Jaye explores this complex issue in enough depth that the viewer is actually edified, and not brainwashed by it. And that takes true talent. "Daddy I Do" will be shown at the Cannes Festival in May."
Here's a review that popped up on IMDB a little bit ago:
"The way a documentary should be made. This documentary had an exceptional quality; it did not allow the film maker's perspective on this contentious issue to dominate or even raise its head until the very end (and I won't spoil that for you). For the first half of the movie, every time one of the advocates for one side or the other of this issue (abstinence only, sex education) was presenting their case I would think she was on "their side". Then I realized that she was simply allowing all of these people to present their best case and she honored the nature of debate, which SHOULD be present in all documentaries about controversial topics. Until I saw this film, I didn't realize how incredibly rare it is in contemporary documentary films. I certainly haven't seen them all, but I have seen over 300 feature length docs in the past two years. I can not recall another one that came across as this balanced, a stunning achievement. I'm not sure if this was where director Cassie Jaye intended to focus her career energy, but she does have an exciting future as a documentary film maker."
- Ramsey, Rat City Film Society, Seattle, Washington
The Bare Bone Festival organizer said this:
"DADDY I DO is a 'must see' documentary in the vein of Bowling For Columbine and Sicko without the running commentary. An impressive feature length documentary that bring new voices to the decades old debate of sex education and the more recent one of 'abstinence only' indoctrination. It is the kind of film that could h...old its' own at the box office and a savvy distributor would be smart to take it there."
- Oscar Ray, Director, Bare Bones FIlm Festival
Here's a review from a Canadian film blog:
Sex Education at Center of Cassie Jaye's Documentary "Daddy I Do"
"Fear. That’s the first word that comes to mind watching the trailer for Cassie Jaye’s documentary Daddy I Do. Not from the film itself but from the subject matter. Films about sexuality and birth control always seem to have that affect on me, likely because I’ve never felt sexual education is something that is well handled in schools and communities. It’s a topic which has garnered a fair bit of attention in Canada over the last few weeks and for that reason alone, Jaye’s documentary seems particularly well timed.
Daddy I Do is a documentary that looks at the Silver Ring movement (some may recall that Mitchell Lichtenstein’s Teeth (review) featured a similar group) and “examines the effects of Abstinence-Only Programs versus Comprehensive Sex Education in schools and what society can do to help lower teen pregnancies, abortions, and STDS, as well as poverty and sexual abuse.” The film has played a number of film festivals and was recently selected to screen at the Cannes Independent Film Festival in what I can only assume will be the beginning of a much wider release, even if only through the festival circuit, later in 2010.
It’s a promising trailer for a film that is bound to stir up some discussion and I can’t wait to see it."
- Marina Antunes, Row Three, www.rowthree.com
Here's what the San Diego IndieFest organizer had to say:
"Daddy I Do is a brilliant, entertaining and hilarious documentary that explores the ins and outs of sex. This is a great debut by first time filmmaker Cassie Jaye who has a raw, natural talent that makes me look forward to her work."
- Craig Wilson, Mental Eclectic, San Diego, California
"Fear. That’s the first word that comes to mind watching the trailer for Cassie Jaye’s documentary Daddy I Do. Not from the film itself but from the subject matter. Films about sexuality and birth control always seem to have that affect on me, likely because I’ve never felt sexual education is something that is well handled in schools and communities. It’s a topic which has garnered a fair bit of attention in Canada over the last few weeks and for that reason alone, Jaye’s documentary seems particularly well timed.
Daddy I Do is a documentary that looks at the Silver Ring movement (some may recall that Mitchell Lichtenstein’s Teeth (review) featured a similar group) and “examines the effects of Abstinence-Only Programs versus Comprehensive Sex Education in schools and what society can do to help lower teen pregnancies, abortions, and STDS, as well as poverty and sexual abuse.” The film has played a number of film festivals and was recently selected to screen at the Cannes Independent Film Festival in what I can only assume will be the beginning of a much wider release, even if only through the festival circuit, later in 2010.
It’s a promising trailer for a film that is bound to stir up some discussion and I can’t wait to see it."
- Marina Antunes, Row Three, www.rowthree.com
Here's what the San Diego IndieFest organizer had to say:
"Daddy I Do is a brilliant, entertaining and hilarious documentary that explores the ins and outs of sex. This is a great debut by first time filmmaker Cassie Jaye who has a raw, natural talent that makes me look forward to her work."
- Craig Wilson, Mental Eclectic, San Diego, California
I swear I'm not leaving out any "bad" reviews, this is all we've gotten so far. I love reading reviews because I honestly think everyone takes something different away from DADDY I DO. It's a film that doesn't push an opinion down your throat, it just shows the different sides, and the viewer is left to decide what they think. So, when I read these reviews, I can tell a lot about the way they think and where they're coming from based on how they take away DADDY I DO. It's fascinating to me. I love it!
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