In some ways the most horrifying aspects of this film are not the details of what happened but the aftermath. In the case of Daisy Coleman, the community and local law enforcement colluded to shield the young men and shame and exclude the Coleman family. The Sheriff all but stated the two girls were somehow equally responsible for what happened and that Melinda Coleman was nutty. In the case of Audrey Potts the two main participants came across as completely lacking in remorse of understanding. At one point on of the two young men involved in the Potts assault says the biggest thing he learned out of the experience was that "girls gossip and boys are more laid back". Most people with any empathy will want to punch both the Mayor and Sheriff in the face. Maryville Missouri looks like a pretty corrupt place. The Potts lost their daughter and the reality is assaults against young women especially when alcohol is involved happen every day.

The one hopeful thing that comes out of this is that Coleman, the Potts family and others have all become advocates for others.

A tragic and infuriating documentary about two teenage girls who first faced sexual assault and then became pariahs (along with their families) for having the audacity to anger one of the city's most important families. But the most disgusting part of this film deal with the horrid sheriff slut-shaming the victims while defending the rapists because, hey, boys will be boys and the girls asked fro it anyway. The fact that creeps such as this still hold positions of power in this country, albeit a conservative part of the country, is even more disheartening. The fact that some find a documentary about two, victimized teenage girls 'liberal propaganda'...well, these are the ones with political agendas that ignores the facts. People who explain away rape and humiliation of teen girls are potential offenders in my opinion. A must-see for parents and their children say 12 and up.

The internet is populated an endless amount of dangers that sadly not enough teenagers today know about, and the effects of falling into these traps can be devastating. You look at social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr; and see teenagers online sharing sweet moments in ways of communicating with one another. Unfortunately, social media has also been used as a weapon to attack or humiliate one another, and suicide or suicide attempts are not uncommon results; especially if you can recount the Megan Meier incident back in 2006 or the story of Tyler Clementi in 2010. This documentary directed by Bonni Cohen and John Shenk paints an honest picture on the effects of date rape and the resulting online bullying associating with a story of two teenager who fell victim to these humiliating acts. One story recounts of 15-year old Audrie Pott, a girl from Saratoga, California who was sexually assaulted while drunk at a party and subject to pictures posted online, a heinous act that resulted in her committing suicide. Then there's a second story covering 14-year old Daisy Colemon, a girl from Maryville, Missouri who along with her friend Paige was date raped and subsequently became a target of online harassment, along with her parents. These stories are both told through interviews of the victims and their families, police investigations, social media, and following court cases.

It is generally hard to reach the end of this documentary and not fill your head with thoughts of how innocent little girls can fall victim to such horrible acts by their peers, and concerns of how vulnerable your kids could be (if you're a parent) to becoming a target of humiliating activity like this; and listening to these stories about these girls is quite gut-wrenching. And the saddest part is these kinds of stories are not rare, they happen more than everyone knows. The problem this documentary covers is not just the vulnerability of rape by sex-thirsty young men who use alcohol as a key to take advantage of helpless adolescent girls, but also how teenagers nowadays are not educated enough on the dangers that lie in the social realm and the perils of online social media. Then the more absurd aspects involve how the parents become victims of online scrutiny by the public who were intent on shaming the victims rather than sympathizing with them. And by all means, it is sad to watch. But overall, there is an astounding triumph that the victims and their families end up reaching when the girls learn they must speak out publicly and help stand up for other who have been affected. Though these stories are often told a bit unevenly as the majority of the film seems to go further in depth on the Daisy Colemon story, its still remains interesting to where you may shed some tears in some parts, then by the end cheer for the justice they reach.

Audrie & Daisy is an honest, unbiased documentary that is very gut-wrenching, but at the same time very important for not only parents, but also for teenagers to watch. It is a documentary that I believe is powerful enough to educate teenagers on the dangers that lie in the world of socializing and remind them of the morally gray figures that lie within their community. One of the most important lessons teenagers can learn is that they can get hurt if they do not make smart choices.

A sobering documentary about the perils of being a young girl and believing the world is her friend. (Full disclaimer: I am friends with the mother of young Paige featured in this documentary as we are from the same hometown of Albany)

Audrie & Daisy recounts two different instances in which a young woman parties with the guys and is made to pay for it with shame, humiliation, degradation (by her peers and community) and even death (in the case of Audrie).

Tougher-than-we-can-ever-imagine Daisy survives her ordeal alongside her best friend, Paige, who is also raped the same evening (because boys will be boys) although luckily her rapist admits to his crime and she therefore doesn't find herself in legal turmoil. Yes ... revolting and disgusting. Daisy and her family (her brother is a solid chap) find themselves harassed and hounded by a community -- Maryville, MO (40 some minutes from home) where someone burns the family's house to the ground in spite!!! -- that refuses to believe their football stars could possibly be rapists. In towns like this athletes are small-town heroes and dynastic political families wield a lot of power.

Audrie & Daisy spends much time upon Daisy and the aftermath of her sexual assault/rape (she was 14 at the time, Paige 13) as it also interviews law enforcement officers in Nodaway County, MO (a bunch of idiots) who "won't point fingers" but don't mind naming names ... of girls who apparently lead boys astray. Much of it is shocking. Much of it is unbelievable. All of it is disturbing.

Brave and beautiful girls. Harsh and ugly world.

This movie makes me so mad, especially when their assailants are walking free. Audrie's assailants were named by the Audrie Pott foundation (and wikipedia), but their names were taken off of wikipedia by their families. They are now legal adults so their names can be released: their names are Bronson Barna,Vince Rositano, and Saha Ghafouri (who later changed his name recently). They are on twitter, LinkedIn, and facebook and got to receive a college education and get jobs while Audrie cannot. The girl who coaxed the boys into taking the pictures at the party is named Lucielle Cao. Not only is she a RA at her school with a respectable job, she is also a supporter of the Audrie Pott foundation. How disgusting.

Viewed by Larry Gleeson at AFIDOCS 2016.

Audrie & Daisy, a new documentary co-directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, takes an in-depth look at the effects of cyber bullying following the aftermath when two teenage girls are sexually assaulted. The girls went to parties, drank alcohol to excess and were then sexually assaulted by boys and young men they believed were their friends. The shame and scorn the girl were subjected to resulted in a suicide of a Saratoga, Georgia high school student, Audrie, who believed her reputation was beyond repair. The culprits in the assault eventually reached a plea agreement so the young men could graduate from high school. The agreement included an admission of guilt and a public apology as well as a 45 minute videotaped interview. In the case of Audrie, a Missouri resident in the small town of Maryville in Nodaway County, all charges were dropped in a highly publicized news reported court judgement.

Cohen and Shenk open the film with a slow pan of empty desks in a classroom as a voice over about the Audrey case begins. A cut is made to a high school football practice with the diagetic sounds of grunting, helmets and pads colliding and thudding with the sounds of whistles chirping. An audio deposition of Jon B., not the perpetrator's real name, is heard as an image shows the critical information of what is occurring in a black and white frame as the film's narrative is slowly opening. In a taped 2015 interview, Audrey's mother and father, Larry and Sheila Pott talk candidly about Audrey while pictures of Audrey range from the time she was a baby up into her high school years. Sheila reminisced how she and Audrey cooked together while they watched the food network together. Audrey's best friend from the time of middle school, Amanda Le, opened up about their experiences together through adolescence. Le remembers Audrey developed early physically and by high school was well developed. A group of boys from junior high began a Yahoo! group where they shared nude pictures of their classmates. Le stated Audrey received a lot of requests for pictures, however, as Audrey was quite self-conscious she didn't provide any pictures. Audrey was popular and had many friends. One night at a party Audrey drank too much. In a deposition, her "friend" stated her carried Audrey upstairs and laid her on a bed. Two other young men entered the room and closed the door. With Audrey, unmoving on the bed, the three boys stripped her naked. They took turns sexually assaulting her with their fingers. They painted half her face black and placed indelible lewd comments on her body. Photographs were taken and videos were recorded while Audrey laid defenseless.

Through the use of textual overlays from conversations Audrey initiated with her "friend," Cohen and Shenk create a sense of real-time. Audrey does not recollect what happened and pleads with her friend and others to tell her what happened. Her "friend" tells her it will blow over in a week. Yet, when Audrey gets to school, she comes to a realization that everyone in school is aware of what happened and the images of her assaulted naked body have made their way online. Shamed and humiliated, Audrey feels her reputation is beyond repair and commits suicide.

Daisy Coleman, a perky blonde-haired, blue-eyed freshman, and new to the small town of Maryville, Missouri also is subjected to shame, humiliation and ridicule following her sexual assault. Daisy and her 8th grade friend who according to an official police investigator looked about eight are invited to a "party." While at the party held in the basement of one of the three older high school males present, both girls are raped while incapacitated. The following morning Daisy is found on her home's lawn with her hair frozen to the grass. What unfolds in Daisy's story is the difficulty is prosecuting an assault without hard evidence. None of the males were over 17. A video was recorded and shared and subsequently deleted without means of retrieval. Consequently, all charges were dropped.

Nevertheless, the maelstrom created by Daisy coming forth had severe repercussions for Daisy on social media. Slowly diminishing in spirit, Daisy began sinking further and further into the rabbit hole when a young woman who had endured and survived a similar sexual assault reached out to Daisy via social media. Delaney Henderson heard about Daisy and used the Facebook chat feature to tell Daisy she understood the feelings and what Daisy was going through. The two young women have started and joined a survivors' group facilitated by a professional counselor. In a Q & A following the screening, it was revealed Daisy Coleman received an athletic scholarship to Mountain Valley College. Daisy stated with strength and conviction, "I'm done with being mad. I finally wanted to move on. I'm not forgetting the past. I'm forgiving the past." High in production values complete with traditional interviews, archival news footage, original evidence-gathering investigation-room interviews, panning location shots, photographs as well as masked caricatures of the depositions, Audrie & Daisy, is a must-see documentary.

And I'm not talking about the documentary, but what has happened and still happens to a degree and not just in America. There are many perks of social media and the overall online community. But there is also a lot of bad stuff that has come with the good. But this is more of a side story to what really matters: The attacks and the way society in general handles those.

There have been false claims of course, but when clear cut cases like this get handled like this ... It really is annoying to say the least and should get people mad. When you hear people complaining that the boys have it tough and their careers shouldn't be ruined, you wonder why they are painted the victims. It's heart breaking to see the girls who have been mistreated - twice or even multiple times. The one is the physical attack, but if that wasn't enough, the psychological consequences are far worse. This shines a light on that and hopefully opens people awareness of this issue ... An important documentary, that may have been able to have some stronger message overall, but still is powerful enough and could be used in schools and classes for educational purposes

In the last couple of years rape has been on the front page nearly every day. And just think about how often was justice served... Not that often. And just think about the cases where the "boys" were protected by law enforcement. (Brock Turner!)

This documentary is just an example of that. Two girls drinking too much and getting used and harassed. On of them now dead. It shows how corrupt and ignorant the government and the police are.

The moment where I wanted to punch the screen was the one, where the sheriff said, that it's not even rape and it's always the boys and they just want to leave it behind, go to college and get on with their lives. In that moment I was sick to my stomach. Guess what?? The girls can't move on because they were humiliated and bullied to the point when they couldn't bear it any longer.

This documentary should be mandatory not just in school but in places where men are training to be a part of law enforcement. Everyone should be educated on sexual assault.

Firstly, my rating of the movie is no means a reflection of my stance on the issue.

The subject of the movie is gripping and definitely an eye-opener. However, my beef is with the storytelling. It lacks the fluidity that it sometimes took away the "punch" that the subject is capable of delivering. There were times (especially in the first part) were the movie jumps from one POV to another that it felt disjointed.

But this movie is still potent and if you have the patience to finish it, two things stand out:

1- Technology has enabled teens to take bullying to alarming heights. One can argue that there is technology by itself is not evil but those who use it. BUT these are children we are talking about... children who are yet to come to terms with the full responsibility of free speech and free information. Just like how parents try to control the movie/shows that their children consume, parents now have an added responsibility of making sure they censor the information they access through social media and the internet. It's scary how these kids use technology (without even thinking) to scar each other... scars which they will carry to adulthood.

It's also alarming how our understanding of reality is shifting. Before the internet, news organizations have the responsibility of distributing the truth behind each news. But with the proliferation of different social media, there's an amount of mob mentality. The side which gets the most "share" or "likes" becomes the "truth"... which is okay if everyone is responsible and accountable to whatever they post and broadcast on their profiles. But alas, we're still far from that day.

2- In this day and age, it's repugnant to see that rape/sexual assault victims are still treated like they are partly responsible for what happened. This was most pronounced in Daisy Coleman's case. I cannot fathom how the whole town turned on her. She's only 14!!! Even if it was consensual, it is not okay for an older guy to have sex with a 14 year old(in this case, 17 years old... underage but he still should have known better)! And the fact that she was intoxicated, it means she's not in her right mind to consent to anything which makes it RAPE! The physical evidence is there! There's also an eyewitness account! It's mind boggling how the sheriff and the DA did not find any case against Matt B! The movie ended harping on this note. It's definitely a powerful message. However, I think it should have brought both points together. After all, the movie is not just about rape/sexual assault. It's about a much larger issue: The vulnerability of children to ANY kind of assault (sexual or otherwise) in the age of social media. I kinda wish the directors offered an actionable message that we can unite behind.

My heart bleeds for Audrie, Daisy and all the girls... but more so for a whole generation of kids who are exposed to an unfiltered world even before they are ready.

Lastly, I hope the sheriff and the whole town of Maryville watches this and FINALLY realize what they have overlooked!

As the father of a little girl, I recommend parents everywhere to watch this movie. This movie addresses the sad reality that many teenage girls in the United States (Yes, right under our noses) are being sexually assaulted by none other than their classmates or male friends. And due to political or peer pressure reasons, these cases are often dismissed... and the girls ignored--sometimes, even bullied and condemned as liars.

There is nothing wrong with the movie. I found it very interesting that they actually interviewed the men involved. But the show had a very Condescending tone the whole time. People always say that this should be shown in schools, but these things are not caused from ignorance of this subject. It's the growing pains of adolescence and the apathy towards the repercussions involving the law. But I'm concerned why Netflix wanted to publish this. With their posting of 'dear white people' and many other liberal identity politics shows and movies. I can't take the reasons of the show being posted seriously. Because people never want to learn from these experiences and take it on a case by case basis. Everything about this seemed to be a rape culture testament when its not.

Apart from being so sad and heartbreaking, it is far more than a simple documentary. It is a life lesson that many aren't aware of. It is something you are never taught in school, although similar things happen around you often. "Taboo" would be the word for this case. I can not believe that in ours today society we still face problems like this. And what's more disturbing is the fact that no action is taken by those who have the power to do something in this sense, leaving the "wounded" with scars on their souls and, even worse, with the accusation that they are liars and came intentionally with this bs just to be given attention.

This film does not examine the effects of online bullying. Online bullying is 8% of this film. This film is a story of two 14 year old girls who had such horrible parents that they were allowed to get drunk/high and drive over to 17 year old boys' houses, where again parents were not around as they got drunk/high, and then the boys took advantage of the girls and had forced sex with them while the girls were passed out. All the while sad music plays and still photos of girls with sad faces and cloudy-day videos of small towns are littered with popup posts from twitter and facebook of people trolling the individuals involved with the cases (to which there are no sources, so it definitely leaves the viewer wondering if they are fabricated). The filmmakers fail with this documentary because they refused to dive deeper into the cases and learn about the other sides of the story. This is very one-sided... but that is intentional as it portrays teenage depression and angst associated with statutory rape. The worst aspect of this documentary is that the parents were never held responsible for their underage children's actions. All throughout the film the parents are talking about all the bad things that happened to their children, but one can't help but to wonder why the filmmakers never asked these parents why they are such horrible parents. This definitely falls under the liberal female-empowerment retribution category, but even there it does not do the topic any justice because it is one-sided, biased, and caters to the idea that parents play no role in the self-destruction of their teenage children.