Second Assault is heading into their last week of funding. It is a difficult story to tell, but an important one. PLEASE SHARE and contribute.
Trichster director Jillian Corsie talks with her co-director Amy Rosner about their new film Second Assault!
Hi Trichster fans! For the past year Trichster director Jillian, along with her co-director Amy Rosner Probert, have been quietly working on a new documentary. And today, we’re excited to share with you the trailer and crowdfunding campaign for our new film, Second Assault.
This is an intensely personal film for Jillian, as it’s about her sexual assault that happened 12 years ago in college. When she reported it to the police, they told her it was consensual, and our film is about her journey to confront the system that failed her. As difficult as this has been for Jillian, we feel that in the wake of the current political climate, it is important to confront this head on.
It would mean everything to us if you could share this story, tag your friends, and contribute to our campaign. Unfortunately, we know Jillian isn’t alone, as 1 in 5 women will be victims of sexual assault in the US. It’’s crucial that we share these stories and support one another.
To watch the trailer and contribute, click here: https://www.seedandspark.com/fund/secondassault#story
Follow Second Assault on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SecondAssaultDoc
Erin’s story
Erin has a story to share, and some amazing advice! She writes:
I was 12 when I first started pulling. I don't remember that first strand of hair in my fingers, long hair, twisting and balling and then plucking, but I do remember sitting in my 7th grade English class and feeling this sensation to pull. This was the early 2000s, and I'd had ~behavioral~ issues for as long as anyone could remember. Issues that would eventually be diagnosed as several common comorbidities of TTM - OCD, ADHD, bi-polar II, depression, anxiety. I remember my mother discovering my first bald patch, a small, round patch right on the crown of my head. She cried. This was the beginning of something major, and we both knew it. What we didn't know, my family and I, was how to deal with this. By some stroke of luck I knew what this was - I had read a magazine article about it, about this hair pulling, months before. I had brushed it aside as a curiosity. I was having violent panic attacks during this age -the kind that kept me up all night for fear I would die in my sleep. Between the panic attacks and the pulling, my mother stood with me to ask my gp about getting psychiatric help. I was a kid, and where I came from, you don't talk about psychiatric disorders. Not then, anyway. The pulling got worse, the panic attacks got worse, the bullying started and friends pulled away. I was never comfortable in my own skin, unfamiliar to myself in pictures and in the mirror. This is baggage I carry today, just after my 30th birthday. My story with BFRBs have ups and downs - lessons learned, so many tears cried, so much progress lost. My trichotillomania is severe - my hair is buzzed short and I wear powder to cover the bald spots. I still have confidence issues. I still rage against this standard of beauty, this industry that celebrates good hair and punishes bad hair, that I am removed from. I still wish it hadn't happened to me. I pull every day, sometimes for hours, sometimes until my fingers are so sore that wounds have opened where my index fingernails dig into my thumb's skin. Every day is a new struggle with something that seems so simple - "just don't do it!" But I have a message for my 12 year old self, my 16 year old self, my 24 year old self, and it is this: "You will become stronger, more eloquent, more empathetic because of this experience. You will meet a stranger's eye and start that conversation, and you will do it with a smile and with no judgement. Every time you do this, you will hear "I have a cousin who plays with her eyelashes..." or "I know a guy who picks his skin...". You will own this condition, because running from it is not an option. You will learn to have a sense of humor, even though it hurts at first, about your hair. You will find strength in honesty. And wigs are itchy - you will come to be thankful in the small blessing that is good bone structure - you will make a pixie cut, a buzzcut, a bald head look good. You will be kinder to every person who opens up to you, because you know what it is like to feel vulnerable at all times. You will forgive, even if you do not forget, unkind things said and done to you. You will learn to advocate for yourself and others, because I know there was nobody to advocate for you when you were just a child. You will become closer to your parents, and they will sit up with you at night, and take your phone calls when you are a thousand miles away, and they will do everything in their power to help you, even if they don't understand, and even if they make missteps. Trust them. You will take all of this fuzz and chaos in your brain, as it translates to your fingers and up to your hair, and you will be successful in spite of it. You will find stability, and adventure, and love. You will own two cats, and will travel the country. You'll have a career that you love, even if you still don't know what you want to be "long term" when you grow up. From time to time, people will tell you that you are the coolest person they've ever met, and that compliment will floor you every. single. time. You may feel alone, but you are not. You may feel like you are drifting through life, but life is happening around you regardless." I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't trade all of this in to be neurotypical - I wonder what my life would have been like if I wasn't fighting myself. But I have to wonder, what will my 60 year old self say to me? What perspective will I have, on how my mental health has colored my life, when I've lived another 30 years?
Have a story you want to tell?
Eddie’s Story
This week's story comes from a friend of ours, Eddie. It was previously posted on the Canadian BFRB Support Network, but Eddie has asked us to share it as well.
Want to tell your story? Write us and we may share it on our social media!
Aisya’s story
We're asking you to tell us your stories. This latest one comes from Aisya:
"I've been suffering trich for 3 years now. It's hell. As a Hijabi, I might have it easier since I have something to cover up my bald spots and hair loss. But I felt so self conscious around my family. I told my family once, they made fun of me for it. It feels like you're destroying yourself slowly everyday. Both physically and mentally. It's exhausting."
Can you relate to Aisya's experience? Comment below! Do you have a story you want to tell? Share here: http://trichster.com/tell-us-your-story/
Grace’s story
During the course of filming, so many of you expressed the desire to share your story. Hundreds of you have reached out via social media and email. We're expanding Trichster's voices by including yours. First up: Grace. Read her story below:
I have had Trich since I was 11 it started getting worse at 13 as I was getting ready to go into high school and the stress of tests and math class was overwhelming. There were also incedences of bulling and a lot of home problems. Then my parents divorced. I knew it was going to happen, they were nearly compatible for each other. So I get to high school with a freshly broken family. At 15 I stopped seeing my dad because a relationship with him was too toxic. It was just me my mom and two siblings. I had kept my Trich a secret for four years now and no one knew I did it. I was missing hair in places but I blamed that on hair dye drying it out or accidentally burning it off with a straightener. I used elaborate excuses to hide it but my mom still believed them. We would try to hide my bald patch with different haircuts and hairstyles and she would grow more impatient when it would get bigger. I remember crying on the bus my first day of 10th grade because she had just yelled at me about how awful my hair had looked. She did not understand why my hair looked so bad at the time. As the year progressed she noticed my hands in my hair a lot and random balls of hair the size of a base ball. Hair covered the car from bored car rides. She started to put things together. Every time I touched my hair she yelled at me and told me I was crazy I needed to be in a metal ward. Hearing her yell was common but hearing things like this yelled at me hurt. I didn't know why I pull my hair I was already upset with why I couldn't stop. She sent me to homecoming crying because she couldn't figure out what to do with my hair because it was missing and looked awful and I needed to stop doing this insane thing. I started doing my own hair for formal events after. At 17 I was talking to a friend about this and she said it was a form of self harm. I looked into it and found it was Trichotillamania and actually a BFRB caused by anxiety. At one point it was classified as self harm but has since changed. I tried to think of how to tell my mom about this but I couldn't so i started with telling my friends. They were very helpful if I was pulling they would hold my hand instead of slapping it away or yelling at me to stop. Then the day where I had actually told my mom what it was came. She was yelling at me about it and I was of course a mess from crying and I told her it wasn't weird it affected one in thirty three usually women. She laughed and I told her the name. Then she got angry. She yelled at me that I was trying to make myself more important than I really am that I was seeking attention. She brought up my terminally I'll friend and asked if I was trying to be like her. She asked if I was trying to have an illness of my own just because I wanted attention. "Yours is made up but she is dying from hers!" She had yelled a few times. I spent the rest of the day crying yet again. At the last week of school she had taken away my phone because of this and I finally had a breaking point in my theater class. One of the guys said something thatjust hit my breaking point and I ended up in a panic attack where I started ripping my hair out. No one had ever seen me like this and it freaked a bunch ha of my class out. Me and my theater teacher had a talk about this and I vented to her about all the problems between me and my mom. I explained the hair pulling and she asked why I didn't just stop. At the time I told her "I just can't." too tired of explaining Trich to everyone but have since regretted it. I wish I explained it but it\'s too late now. Talking to her made me feel a lot better though and there is a reason she was my favorite teacher after four years of high school I do miss her. I'm 21 now and my mom doesn't yell as much, but I hardly ever talk to her. The way she treated this has broken our relationship. I try to stay civil but I don't exactly want to be close to her. Friends and my grandparents have become more important to me. My grandparents try their best to understand and don't become angry when I litter their car with hair. They politely tell me to stop pulling or ask me if something is wrong. My friends let me talk to them or still hold my hand. If I look too stressed from doing homework or a club project they help me take a study break. I've even met friends with Trich as well. Since I'm now in college and away from my mother I can hang out with them more. I never want to lose this. I take medication now too that helps a bit with pulling I do pull less but it's not like it has stopped. Trichotillamania is still very much a part of my life and I guess it always will be. I\'m stuck with it but that's okay.
Want us to feature your story on or social media platforms? Write us! Tell us what Trichotillomania or another BFRB means to you. Select stories will be shared on Trichster’s social pages. Let's keep the conversation going. Head over to our website and fill out this form:
BAY AREA FANS! Come see Trichster NEXT THURSDAY at 7pm in Livermore, CA at The Vine Theater! http://79655.formovietickets.com:2235/T.ASP…
We are beyond excited to announce Trichster will be available on iTunes Mon April 18th. Pre-sale starts this Friday, March 11th. What a wonderful journey it's been.
See TRICHSTER March 17th at 7pm in Livermore, CA! Tell your friends! #trichotillomania
Happy Holidays!
Hello all!
We are getting closer to the holidays in the US and so we wanted to tell you what we're thankful for.
Thank you to everyone who came out to Cucalorus Film Festival, as well as NewFilmmakers New York to see Trichster. We really love being able to connect with everyone and hear your views on the film.
Last but not least, thank you to everyone who has donated, tweeted, posted, commented, and just been plain ol' supportive of Trichster from the beginning. Trust us when we say, we're working HARD to get the film out to you guys. Releasing a film is not as easy as it looks! Any millionaire followers want to help out? wink emoticon
If we quiet down over the next few weeks, just know its because we're plotting, planning, and scheming ways to get this movie on your nearest screen, ASAP. You have immense patience and we're grateful. Stay tuned and watch this space!
Lots of love,
Trichster team.
For those of you in New York, come on out to our screening tonight at 6pm! Tickets are only $6.
Trichster in London!
Good news for our UK friends! Trichster is coming to London for it’s European Premiere!
Director Jillian Corsie will be present for the screening September 7th at 7pm on the King’s College London Students’ Union (KCLSU) Campus.
Harris Lecture Theatre, Hodgkin Building, Guy's Campus, Southwark, London, SE1 1UL.
Q&A to follow the film!
Buy your tickets here: http://www.kclsu.org/ents/event/2575/
#tbt! Remembering this awesome moment from last month. Here's #Trichster director @jcorsie posing and having a chat with two of our sweet audience members after a screening. Great meeting you guys! Did you see this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1MDsxIefmJQvjXkYaAgzTVLIVLs4MfVPwwUd4yXUksEk/viewform?c=0&w=1? If you're interested in seeing the film, we'd love for you to click the link and fill out the survey to get Trichster to your city. Feel free to share and pass along!
honored to have been nominated for best documentary at the Soho International Film Festival!
You can see Trichster THIS THURSDAY at 7:30pm at the Los Angeles Center Studios Beaudry Theater! Details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1579630595626802/