Synopsis
The headline-grabbing murder of 21-year-old British backpacker Grace Millane while on a solo holiday in New Zealand is examined in this confronting documentary that explores how the shocking case highlighted disturbing attitudes about violence towards women.
Helena Coan
Helena Coan is a British director and writer who works in both narrative and documentary. Her latest narrative work is the short horror film Blood Rites, produced by BBC Films. Blood Rites has screened at prestigious US genre film festivals including Fantastic Fest and Beyond Fest, as well as numerous BAFTA and BIFA-recognized festivals in the UK. It was nominated for the European Méliès d’argent award and won the Golden Bee for Best Short Film at the Manchester Film Festival. Blood Rites is now being developed into a feature film, which Helena will direct.
Helena is also known for her documentary work. In November 2020, her feature documentary Audrey, an intimate look at Audrey Hepburn’s life, was released to critical acclaim across the world. It was produced by Salon Pictures and distributed worldwide by Universal Pictures. The film secured a theatrical release and was acquired by Netflix in the US, where it became one of the Top 10 most-watched films on the platform in new releases.
Helena’s latest project, The Lie, is a feature documentary that was built out of CCTV footage and follows a first date that ends in horrific circumstances. The film has been released by Sky in the UK and has now secured a theatrical and VOD release in the US as well as in Australia and New Zealand.
Interview
Cinema Scholars’ own Glen Dower sat down with director Helena Coan to discuss her harrowing new documentary feature The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane. They spoke about the challenge of making a film primarily out of CCTV footage, the challenge of editing a true-crime documentary, and the importance of putting Grace’s tragic story in a wider context, among other topics.
(Edited for content and clarity)
Glen Dower:
Hi Helena, how are you?
Helena Coan:
Hi Glen, I’m good, how are you?
Glen Dower:
I’m very, very well. So, let’s talk about The Lie. It’s not an easy watch, of course, but rewarding, almost cathartic. You are of course the director, how did the material come across your desk, so to speak?
Helena Coan:
A few years ago, I made a film about Audrey Hepburn, a very different subject, but still about a woman who was quite misunderstood. So I think there is a theme that runs through my work in that way. Tom and Matthew, who work at GFC Films, had seen it, and then we were trying to figure out a project to work on together for a while. And then we talked about making a true crime documentary, and this was a case that I remember very well.
I was only a couple of years older than Grace at the time when she died. She went to school with my friend who lived in Essex, which is not far from where I live in the UK. And it was a case that I remembered clearly and a story that I felt hadn’t been told in the right way, and that she had been very misunderstood, and had been blamed for her murder. And then the use of the rough sex defense was something that just terrified me.
Then the opportunity to make the film primarily out of CCTV footage was something, from a creative point of view, that was fascinating to me. Then we just got started with making it, we got Grace’s mum’s blessing, otherwise I wouldn’t have made the film. I’ve been offered true crime projects before that I’d said no to because it felt like there’s not a reason. Whereas with this one, I felt that there was a very clear reason why it should be made. And that was to tell the truth of what happened to Grace.
Glen Dower:
I agree. I remember the case and seeing the BBC News footage in the film, and it took me back. It’s one of those cases that does horrify the nation…for a week. And then you think, why, why isn’t that revisited? And I think it’s positive that the film goes back and, it is horrific, of course, it does revisit the story in-depth. You mentioned the CCTV aspect. I made a note while I was watching ‘no talking heads, no narrator’. But it remained so engaging. Was that a conscious decision on your part, creatively?
Helena Coan:
Yes, I always wanted this film to feel very immersive and almost like a bit of a nightmare that you’re in this story with her.
Glen Dower:
Horror aspects, right?
Helena Coan:
Yes. You’re not having someone sit down on a chair telling you facts and figures and how bad it was, I wanted people to have as much empathy as possible. And for me in filmmaking, that’s when you’re there with the main character. For all intents and purposes, that is Grace in this film. Obviously, (the accused) is given a lot of the focus as well. But this is about Grace. And I think I just wanted it to feel immersive.
We did a test screening and someone came out and said to me ‘I feel like I’ve just woken up from a horrible dream and had to take a deep breath’. And we had audience test members almost passing out because it was so intense. It’s like the reaction to a horror film because it’s so in your face and visceral. And although that’s very difficult, I want people to feel uncomfortable because it is horror in a real way.
Glen Dower:
Absolutely, I felt that for sure. I don’t want to give his name, but the accused, we meet him within the first five minutes. And I thought ‘Oh, it’s obviously him’. Then, ‘well it must be a red herring.’ But it’s not. Of course, it is him, and the film just plays out and becomes the lie of the title. Was there ever a time for you to go take the angle of a red herring or introduce a twist, or was it always going to be a linear story?
Helena Coan:
We went through it quite a bit, and there was a kind of completely different edit of this film. And something didn’t feel quite right. And we were trying to figure out what it was. So the film ended up being called The Lie. It was about how you unravel his lies. In the test screening, some people were like, oh, I really believed it wasn’t him. And I think that’s really interesting. I knew as soon as I saw him, I just had a gut instinct.
It speaks to a wider perspective of violence against women, and the people who commit those crimes, people think that they know who they are, what they look like, how they move, and how they act. But you just don’t know. And I think that is also something I felt so much in this film, was anyone or I could have been Grace. So many of my female friends could have been Grace and could still be Grace. And it’s seeing someone on a first date, and having a really nice time…
Glen Dower:
On her birthday…
Helena Coan:
Yes, and then realizing he is the problem. And how do you unravel that and show what his intentions actually were?
Glen Dower:
Yes. Keeping the focus on. The film comes in three parts. I noticed around the fifty-minute mark, we go into the violence against women aspect. Was that really important to you? To step away from the storyline, move into the wider picture.
Helena Coan:
Yes, because I think true crime, if you want to label this as true crime, has got to a point where now it’s quite distasteful, I think a lot of it. You’ll notice, hopefully in the film, that you know nothing about the accused at all. You don’t know where he was born. You don’t know who his parents are and you know nothing about him. Because to me, he is nothing. He could be anybody. And I really wanted to make sure that the focus was widened to what her death speaks to on a wider level. With the defense that was used in court, you can’t ignore that.
And the lawyer, pretty much saying she asked for this. It’s horrendous. And I don’t think I would have made the film without that aspect in it. It was really important to me to make sure to include that wider conversation about how Grace’s death fits into that wider social construct of violence against women.
Glen Dower:
You mentioned the court case, and there are points where we, the audience are screaming at the screen at the defense lawyers going, ‘Seriously’? I know you’re paid to do this, but…!’ They’re really scraping the barrel there. Was there any part of you thought, just leave this out because it’s just too infuriating? Or did you want to show the balance of what the court case was like?
Helena Coan:
There was, and that was the hardest bit of the film to edit because, at certain points, certain members of my team would be ‘Are we just kind of retelling what they said and showing that, putting ideas in people’s heads, are we re-victimizing her’? And I never ever wanted to do that. And I really fought hard to not re-victimize her. This is telling the truth of what happened in that courtroom. I think it was her mum who said it felt like it was happening all over again.
They’re watching their daughter being torn apart in court, and she’s not able to be there, and this is not what happened. And I think so often people defend defense lawyers and say, well, that’s their job, that’s what they do. But there has to be a line where it’s not physically possible to do that. Like, let’s just not use that defense. It makes me very angry.
Glen Dower:
Like you, they repeat the same argument over and over, they’re going around in circles, and they’re hoping some shit will stick. This leads to the Shame and Blame aspect, which you talked about. It actually reminded me of the case against Amanda Knox. Of course, she wasn’t the victim, but she was strongly accused, wasn’t she? She was named Foxy Knox etc. but then, of course, she was correctly exonerated due to lack of evidence. It dives into female sexuality, being a target, and making themselves the target. And I just find that infuriating too. Is that something else you were investigating?
Helena Coan:
Yes, and I think I could almost make a whole other film about that aspect of it. But it’s this idea that if a woman is sexually active, still, there is something in our collective consciousness that’s like, ‘Oh, well, maybe, if she just hadn’t done that, she wouldn’t have been killed’. It’s like, but that’s not the point, she should be allowed to do that. And I may be an optimist, but I want to believe in a world where that is possible. Women can act in a way without putting themselves in purposeful danger, they can and they should be able to go on first dates on their 22nd birthday, and have a nice time, have some drinks, and go back to someone’s room. Like, we’ve all done that.
And I think it’s so much easier to point the blame at the young woman and go, oh, well, it’s her fault, rather than look at the huge systematic problems in our society, that breed people like the accused, who think they have this entitlement that they can do whatever they want with women. And if it wasn’t Grace, it would have been somebody else. It wasn’t, it was not her fault.
Glen Dower:
The whole Tinder Date culture. As you say, we did that all the time at university for example. You went out on Wednesday nights to the union, had a few drinks, and hopefully, got lucky, whatever. But there was never any danger. Do you think there is an attitude of ‘it’ll never happen to me’?
Helena Coan:
I think so. But it’s that perspective I was coming at, I don’t want people to watch this and think, oh, my God, I can never go on a date again. Like, do go on a Tinder date, and have lots of fun! It’s that I really want young men to watch this film and think about their friends who might be like the accused. And what are the signs? How do you talk to them? How do you see these little things? I have known men who are abusive and violent, and it doesn’t just come out of nowhere. It’s a systematic thing that builds up, how do we stop that? How do we see those kind of behaviors start to come out?
And because there were behaviors in his life that had gone unchecked. I don’t want women to watch this film and then be terrified. And also, women already know all of this stuff. This idea that this could happen to you is a silent burden that we all carry with us every day. When you walk down the street, when your friend goes home you say, text me when you get home, and you check that she got home safely. Like, this is something we all already know. I really want young men, and men in general to watch this film and be like, fuck, living with that threat must be really exhausting. And it is.
Glen Dower:
And for parents as well. I watched it and just thought, thank God I don’t have daughters because I would lock them up. And I have little boys. I think I have to watch out for these little red flags but you just think they will never turn out like that. But of course, there are circumstances where little boys do not have the role models they need, they have abandonment trauma or they face some sort of abuse that will create monsters, but it’s up to society to recognize those. Towards the end, you highlight that the film is for those women who have had the rough sex defense used against them. How important was that for you to put that list together?
Helena Coan:
It was, it was really important. Again, that was something I really fought to have in the film. And those names are just the people that have been recorded in the UK as well. It’s actually really hard to get records from all around the world. It was so shocking, putting that list together and reading through all the other cases of women in this country, in the UK, who have been victims to that defense and, you know, who have been brutally murdered. And the perpetrator has either completely got away with it or got a reduced sentence and spent two years in jail and is now out. It’s really terrifying.
And it was so important to again, put Grace’s story in that wider context and have that kind of sisterhood as well of all these women who, who have such injustice has been brought against them. Even like in Grace’s case, even when the perpetrator is found guilty, all of the woman’s sexual history is read out in the courtroom for everyone to hear and their personal information should never be heard and that a parent should never have to hear. It’s victimizing them again and again and again. And that lives on forever because of the internet and papers and whatever. It’s trying to shine a light on what an issue this is. And it’s, it’s something that’s being used more and more, and it’s really scary.
Glen Dower:
For sure. So like you say, you would like young men or parents to see this. Who else in power would you like to see your film and take a moment and see if it is time for more action?
Helena Coan:
It’s really hard because when Grace was murdered, her family fought to have the rough sex defense banned in the UK. And there was something passed. But you can’t ban a defense. Obviously, you shouldn’t be able to because it would kind of see the justice system crumble, but you can make that defense harder to use. And that’s what I hope with this film is that decision, you know, lawmakers or even lawyers themselves, you know, particularly people who, I don’t, I don’t know, people who can make these kind of decisions about whether these, whether to use this defense or not. And also charities that work with young men and boys teaching them about things like consent.
I think I really want those people to see this film. I just want this film to get into the public consciousness and have people watch it and understand that this is a defense that is used and talk about it with your friends. And we’ve seen that in the UK, which with the film, which has been amazing, lots of stuff on social media and friends talking to friends about the film and saying, have you watched it? And that’s what I think really makes change; the subtle shifts in consciousness that make things like this defense harder to be used because people, juries just won’t buy it.
Glen Dower:
Perfect. So once the film gets released hopefully, it has the impact you hope for and deserve. What’s next for you?
Helena Coan:
I’m actually moving away from documentaries for the first time in my career. So I started filming, I started, I did my first feature doc when I was 23. I’m now 29. I’m about to turn 30 and I’m moving into the narrative space. I’ve made a short horror film, which is now being developed into a feature film. I am writing a script as well, which has very similar themes to The Lie. It’s about abuse and sisterhood but told in a more traditional horror way. So shifting into narrative stuff now.
Glen Dower:
Great, good luck with that! Hopefully, we’ll get to speak again about that soon.
Helena Coan:
Yes, definitely! I’ll be chatting with you!
Glen Dower:
That’d be great. Thank you for your time, Helena. Best of luck with the release of The Lie. It’s been a real pleasure.
Helena Coan:
Yes, you too.
The Lie is set to be released in cinemas and online in Spring 2024.
