On Monday, Netflix released a trailer for Audrie & Daisy, a documentary directed by husband-and-wife team Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk. Netflix purchased the film in January at Sundance. The documentary follows the heartbreaking cases of Audrie Pott and Daisy Coleman. Pott was sexually assaulted in 2012; after photos of the assault were shared on social media, she took her own life at the age of 15. Coleman saw the town of Maryville, Missouri, turn against her after she was allegedly sexually assaulted at the age of 14 by a group of boys including the grandson of a Missouri state representative; her family had to move elsewhere, and her house was burned down.
From the trailer, the documentary looks like it takes the sort of archival footage plus moody shots of small towns that worked for Making a Murderer. Cohen and Shenk described the Coleman case as “a modern-day Scarlet Letter story.” Unfortunately, the topic of how our society and its criminal justice system often fail victims of sexual assault is as timely as ever. Audrie & Daisy will be released on Netflix on Sept. 23.
