That’s Harassment, a new PSA video series is raising awareness about sexual harassment. The new campaign features six individual short films, which are based on several women’s real life experiences with sexual assault.
Spearheaded by actor David Schwimmer, the campaign was inspired by a similar series that aired in Israel, which was created, written and directed by Schwimmer’s friend Sigal Avin. Taken with the films’ message, he set out to develop a version to share in the U.S. Sigal and David partnered with Mazdack Rassi, co-founder of Milk Studios, and together they came up with #ThatsHarassment.
The mission of the campaign is to “illustrate various environments in which harassment occurs to increase awareness of harassment in our society.” The short films take place in a doctor’s office, a photography studio, a television show set, a business office (video above), bar and politician’s office; places where many women experience sexual harassment.
In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Sigal explained her intention with the films. “I realized that I really wanted to see what sexual harassment was instead of hearing about it and reading about it all the time. There was nothing on it, everything was much more violent, or unreal, but there was nothing that showed the gray area of sexual harassment.”
The videos, were shot over a single weekend with the goal of launching them this month for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The shorts feature actors Cristela Alonzo, Zazie Beetz, Bobby Cannavale, Noah Emmerich, Grace Gummer, Michael Kelly, Harry Lennix, Cynthia Nixon, Anna Van Patten, Emmy Rossum, David Schwimmer and Joseph Sikora.
“The whole purpose of this is to encourage people and to give them the courage to speak out if they’re a victim themselves of harassment, or if they witness or are aware of sexual harassment,” says David. “The problem is that people don’t step forward or say something if they’re witnessing it because of fear of retaliation. The more you’re surrounded by other people, who agree and see that something is wrong, the easier it is for someone to step forward. You feel like you have an army behind you.”
All of the videos are available to view on the #ThatsHarassment Facebook page.
If you are someone you know is a victim of sexual harassment, call 800.656.HOPE (4673) to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.