Anyone know about Form Media?

[Riverwind (imported)]

Losethem,

You have such a way with words,

River

[Losethem (imported)]

Ok, a couple days ago I posted the one word post that said RUN!

I have, in fact been in contact with this group of people and they are going to be sending me a couple examples of their work which I will view and give all of you here my honest opinion of their work.

Here is the reply I sent to Tanya at forum media this evening:

Tanya--

Pleasure to make your acquaintence.

I'm not sure how far I am willing to participate in your venture at this point. What I will do is review the materials and assess it for the community in general. I've noticed there is a flurry of activity there as well and I think whatever my opinion is will carry weight with the people on the Eunuch Archive.

We are a VERY distrustful lot with our most recent disaster appearing in the American magazine called Details. As such, we are rather skittish when it comes to people wanting to interview us. Working with media folks I know what the ultimate goal is for most television or other media works.

As for the ability to only view on my computer... that is fine... that is the only DVD style player I have in my home.

My address is:

LT

123 Fake Street

Anytown, ZA 12345

USA

I will give it my own honest review to the community, whatever my view is.

[JesusA (imported)]

Losethem and Quillman are not the only Archive members who have been in direct contact with Jonah Weston and Form Media. Richard Wassersug, a professor of medicine and a person who is very much out as a eunuch, has spoken extensively with him. I have spoken at length with Jonah and will be meeting him in person in about two weeks when he will be in my area for work on a very different documentary that he is producing.

I’m glad that a number of people are in contact with him. There is the potential for this to be the documentary that we all want and need. Though, we do still need to be very cautious. The goals of a documentary filmmaker may overlap with, but will not be identical to, those of the Eunuch Archive community.

I would encourage others to talk with Jonah and with Ruth Anderson, his research assistant. Just maintain caution until we have a much better idea of where he is going.

Please, also, keep the rest of the community informed.

[Losethem (imported)]

I just received and watched two full-length Forum Media documentaries in the mail. My intial review is that this might be the group of people we've been looking for.

The first video I reviewed was "Wild Child" about feral children. Esentially kids that were abandoned and left to be raised by animals, etc. They handled the subject rather well. Documented how the medical/educational/legal fields helped these children once they were found to be feral. The video mostly spoke about how to treat these children and find ways to assimilate them into society. Very stong basis on learning language.

The other video was called, "Anatomy of Disgust". It's definately not what you would think by looknig at the title. It was mostly about caste systems and how people use disgust to hold down lower classes. IE rich vs. poor.

Both of these videos were VERY well done.

That said, I'd still exercise some caution as it is a media production, but from what I can see even though they have provacative titles, these are no repeats of "American Eunuchs".

I think Wild Child has even been on the Discovery Channel here in the US, and you know what kind of stuff they usually show on that.

Use your best judgement, but I think this is our best shot at a legitimate, non-shock value documentary we've had in quite some time.

[JesusA (imported)]

Jonah Weston and one of his research assistants spent three and a half hours yesterday sitting in my living room discussing their proposed documentary on the voluntary eunuch community. While I would never trust someone working on such a project one hundred percent, I was impressed by their seriousness and by the direction that they indicated they hoped to take the documentary.

I tried a couple of times to distract them by bringing up those with BDSM castration fetishes and those who have been castrated for pedophilia. Jonah made it very clear that either topic would distract attention from the far more important point of gender diversity – that there is much more than just “male” and “female” in the world and that “eunuch” is a valid gender.

He was also interested in those who have used castration as a means to drop their libido to match that of a long-time partner – saying that it was a true expression of devoted love. He thought that it might be one significant “hook” both to capture the audience’s attention and to provide a positive reaction to the eunuch community.

He also mentioned that a good hook might be to tell the, mostly young, audience of the TV program that there was a good chance that THEY might well become INvoluntary eunuchs as a result of prostate cancer. That castration was a very real possibility in their own lives. That they probably already knew at least one person who had been castrated, but who was too fearful of the potential reaction to let it be known.

Jonah seemed as appalled by the sensationalism of “American Eunuchs” as I’m sure every member of the Archive is. He thought a much better documentary on eunuchs was one produced (and shown ONLY in the UK) in 2000 that featured two active members here: Talula and JeffEunuch. He said that he thought that the “cutter”, who was kept in shadow during his interview, should not have been part of the presentation and that he wished that more time had been spent on the motivations for castration of the three subjects who were voluntary eunuchs.

I was favorably impressed and plan to help this to become a documentary that is both accurate and sympathetic to the community it portrays.

If you decide to participate in this project, maintain caution, of course, and please let the rest of the community know about what you are doing. The documentary will be completed with or without our help. We want to make certain that it is the best one possible.

[HairyHarry (imported)]

I have also received an approach by PM, but the researcher is known as Rachel Tracy. I'll wait a while before I respond, one way or the other.

I agree, the website index page is TERRIBLE!

[Karisma (imported)]

I have also received an approach by PM, but the researcher is known as Rachel Tracy.

So has I, becouse of "posts" i've made to this forum and such -- stated as the reason. Which makes me wanna re-read all i've written so I know what bullshit(and not) i've written over the years lol.

[thefraj (imported)]

I spent a wonderful afternoon/evening with Jonah et al. on Monday, and was very pleasantly surprised! They seem very genuine and enthusiastic to understand and paint a fair picture of our community.

Given our past problems with the media - and resulting unwillingness of many to talk - it would have been very easy for them to pick the first five ‘bizarre-seeming’ people who responded and have a shockingly sensational piece with little effort! This didn't happen.

I trust their intentions

Instead, They have persevered to win our trust, been very transparent and engaged in our community even addressing some of the concerns raised by members in this very thread! These are not the actions of someone who doesn't care. I trust their intentions and think we need to work together to make this the program we have all been hoping for!

But good intentions in themselves is only the start. This whole subject needs to be approached with such incredible sensitivity - more so than any other aspect of human sexuality - due to it's relative obscurity. I think both of us started off on the wrong foot with their members not realizing how terribly hurt we have been in the past with the media. And us, for pre-emptively (but quite sensibly!) assuming the worst until proven otherwise. They have convinced me that they are different. But I will still say more sensitivity is needed.

Concerns

Among the one or two things over which I voiced concerns was details of my self-harm before castration. While I accept that this was a reality for me, I would question the value in focusing on graphic details which the public can only find very disturbing and not terribly informative. By all means report it as fact, but do so briefly with such incredible sensitivity.

I was also very greatful (and a little concerned!) with being informed that their currently planned opening of the documentary, in which the case of the North Carolina ‘dungeon’ (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12102319/) will be explained. I don't doubt it's usefulness as a device. But one which must be used with extreme care. Barts article opened with a child-molesterers fantasy about abducting a child, and we saw where that went! However, the Philadelphia City article (http://70.87.42.251/articles/2006-04-06/cover.shtml), opened with an account of Talulas self-castration attempt but - many thought - was quite favourable!

The difference? I don't know. Perhaps it was because the latter article only spent 16 words describing the gore, and then spent several paragraphs focusing on his feelings and motivations, playing into peoples sympathy. Or perhaps it is easier to dehumanize a pedophile? I'm not sure. I can only say as loudly as possible that the opening will need to be directed with such extreme care.

But very impressed

But - all that aside - I was very impressed. I really hope I don't live to regret being involved .

[sduyck_2000 (imported)]

I am always curious why eunuchs are something media wants to document.I dont see many amputee documentarys.

They are working hard at this as I got a backdoor invite yesterday from a completly differant source.I was surprised.

[homptydumpty (imported)]

What a novel idea, give eunuchs a chance to explain them selves, so other don’t attempt to.