A SCOTTISH actress who says she was sexually assaulted by a leading film director will take part in a free event discussing what’s next for the #MeToo movement.
TV and film actress Mhairi Morrison, of Banchory, Kincardineshire, says she met the director in Paris when she was 24, two weeks after she finished her studies at drama school. Morrison studied in the French capital after graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, back when it was called the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
She first told her story publicly on a crowd-funding page to raise money for Don’t Silence Me, a video to a song by musician Sadie Jemmett described as an “anthem for sexual assault survivors”. Jemmett wrote the song after close friend Morrison told the singer-songwriter her story.
The video features Morrison alongside more than 40 other women pulling tape from their mouths. Many of them, such as artist-actress Lili Bernard, have previously gone public with their claims against high-profile men.
The video, directed by film-maker Jenn Page, was first shown at an event in Los Angeles ahead of International Women’s Day last month, before showings in Paris and London.
Now Morrison, who has starred in Casualty and STV thriller Missing, returns to the conservatoire for a screening of the video, a live performance by Jemmett and a panel discussion on sexual violence.
The talk will be chaired by Madeleine Black, Glasgow-based author of Unbroken, a memoir of how she broke her silence after being gang-raped at the age of 13.
Speaking to CBS News alongside Bernard after the LA launch of Don’t Silence Me, Morrison told of her hopes for the video.
“I hope it’s a conversation-starter, at first with yourself,” she said. “That you can look back and start to see things as they are and begin to heal and move on.”
April 24, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow, 6.30pm, free. For tickets, email: events@dontsilencemetoo.com. www.dontsilencemetoo.com
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