Raw Deal is one of the most exposing and controversial documentaries about rape and fraternity life today. Billy Corben’s remarkable exposé on the contested rape of 27-year-old Lisa Gier King in Gainesville, Florida, is sure to provoke heated discussions everywhere about rape, women’s rights, and male privilege.

On Friday, February 26, 1999, Delta Chi frat brothers at the University of Florida held a party at their fraternity house and hired exotic dancer Lisa Gier King to perform. The following morning, a half-naked and distraught King ran from the house, claiming that Michael Yarhaus had raped her. Her most startling allegation was that frat brother Tony Marzullo had videotaped the crime.

Two days later, King herself was arrested for filing a false police report after authorities claimed the rape showed “clearly willing and consensual sex.”

The community was stunned by King’s arrest after it was discovered that the videotape showed Marzullo himself repeatedly addressing the camera to gleefully describe that what he was witnessing was a rape.

Under pressure from the media and Campus NOW to charge the frat brothers with rape, State Attorney Rod Smith arrogantly responded by making the tape available to the public so people could “make up their own minds.”

Filmmaker Billy Corben takes Smith’s challenge and presents the scandalizing, sexually explicit footage alongside interviews of participants involved with the case to conduct an investigation the police never did. The result is a shocking insight on fraternity life and the politically constructed nature of “the truth.”

2001 Sundance Film Festival (World Premiere)

2001 Edinburgh Film Festival (Intl Premiere)

2002 Miami Intl Film Festival