‘Watch You Rise’ investigates the cycles of sexual harm at film festival debut in Denver

Across the documentary “Watch You Rise,” Isabella Grace Cohn solidifies her close-knit relationship with her mother. She sifts through archival images of the two of them, learns that her mother was assaulted by a family member beginning in third grade and embraces her while having difficult conversations.

Her mother’s experiences with sexual harm caused her to not feel comfortable in her own skin for years. As Cohn continued developing her documentary revolving around sexual assault, she watched her mother begin to heal.

“Watch You Rise” is a personal documentary by 23-year-old Boulder-based filmmaker Cohn about sexual harm prevention, trauma, consent, and healing through friends and strangers’ accounts of assault. The film is making its debut at Denver Film Festival with screenings at SieFilm Center on Oct. 24 and 31.

From a teen website to a documentary

In 2018, Cohn began her journey investigating the cycles of sexual harm at 14 years old. During the second wave of the #MeToo movement, she started the Me Too Teen Project, a website where people could anonymously share their stories and find links to additional resources.

“I just started to notice how many of the survivors coming forward in the news were survivors of childhood or teen or young adult sexual assault, and I really wanted to create a space somehow for them to be able to come forward in the now,” she said. “And then I found out that my mom was a survivor of childhood and teenagehood sexual assault and grooming, and that became even more urgent that young people need a place to talk now.”

Through Cohn’s deep connection with her mother, she realized she was confronting her own experiences with sexual harm.

“I can read her really well, and I was just noticing a complete shutdown, honestly,” Cohn said. Throughout “Watch You Rise,” Cohn’s mother braves her own story. Cohn explained that her editor Maria Marrone was impressed by her mother’s ability to grow and find her way back to her body.

Marrone told her, “I just have never witnessed someone change so much. She’s changed so much from how she looks, how she acts, how she interviews, how she asks or responds to questions.” Cohn added, “I think a lot of that is her own work and a part of it is having the space to change, and I think that film has that capacity, too.”

Cohn explained that her Me Too Teen Project platform started as a resource for her local community, but with the help of social media, it gained traction and received submissions across the country and globe.

Strangers began messaging Cohn on Instagram with their stories of sexual harm. Compiled with sexual assault cases coming out of Fairview High School in her hometown of Boulder, Cohn felt compelled to figure out why this was happening.

“The harms that we were talking about was like, someone is on a party bus and in front of everyone and gets drugged or raped … and it’s recorded. And the perpetrator didn’t get anything … and I think being in high school and being like, ‘What the fuck? How is this happening and how is it documented and still not getting traditional justice?’” she said. “I think that really led me to pivot to less anger and more curiosity of ‘How and why is this happening?’”

Eight years, 80 interviews

Cohn embarked on an eight-year project of traveling to film and speak to 80 people about their experiences with sexual harm, from friends to complete strangers.

She began filming during her senior year of high school in 2020. Cohn hung posters in bathrooms, bus stops and libraries and posted about the documentary online to garner interest. She held open calls on weekends where people could come in to share their accounts.

Her previous wilderness EMT training helped her learn how to facilitate these vulnerable conversations with people.

“One of the first things they say is, ‘If you start to panic, you can no longer be of service,’” she said. “Your job is to be centered and hold space and give whatever you can.”

She found that many people needed a space to simply be heard, so she allowed people to take their time and say as much or as little as they needed to.

“There are 80 people that I’ve interviewed, and almost every one of their faces is in this film. Part of that is also — this sounds cheesy — wanting it to be a gift and an offering of, ‘You are so sadly not alone in this,’” she said. “‘There are so many people who stand with you, and relate to you, and have compassion for you and with you.’”

An executive producer joins

Cohn also reached out to therapists and psychologists to weigh in, including Dr. Annie Farmer, a Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell survivor. Farmer explained that she felt she had done her part in telling her story and was starting to move on, but Cohn’s focus on education drew her in. Cohn wasn’t just sharing stories — she was trying to understand what sexual education courses leave out and how people think about bodily autonomy.

“The fact that she was a young person was really striking to me because I’ve always believed in the power of young people creating their own media and sharing their perspective that way, and I’ve been involved in projects like that before,” Farmer said. “So I followed up with her, and she came out to Arkansas to interview me.”

Last summer, Farmer became an executive producer on the film, which was a completely new role for her.

“One of the things that really struck me from the beginning was that there was an emphasis on the impact campaign. So there’s obviously the artistic vision of the film, but that was done basically by the time that I was getting involved,” she said. “It was more, ‘How do we bring this to an audience? How do we get people engaged with this topic? And how do we support them as they do that?’ And so these are all things like as a psychologist that were really interesting to me.”

A conversation with her perpetrator

Partway through production, Cohn was sexually assaulted. As she was preparing to give a TEDx Talk on sexual harm two years ago, her perpetrator called her. “I think he had a big fear of [me] suddenly [deciding] I was going to cancel him,” she said.

Cohn told him that since he was so anxious about how the story would be portrayed, he could be a part of the conversation in the film. She spoke to him on multiple occasions and included some of the recordings of their discussions in “Watch You Rise.”

“The main reason why I pushed for that to be part of the film is because perpetrators don’t hear that this can happen. Perpetrators don’t know that there are ways to apologize, to take accountability, that it can be kind, that it can be graceful, that it could even be low stakes,” she said. “There can be enough mutual respect in humanity — not like I respect you for what happened — but respect of just human to human to be able to take that really uncomfortable first step to have a conversation.”

Cohn explained that she isn’t encouraging everyone to talk to their perpetrator because, in many instances, that isn’t a safe option. “The whole point of this whole film is to start opening doors and shining light on all the different ways that something could go,” she said.

Starting at home

“Watch You Rise” was accepted into film festivals before the Denver Film Festival, but Cohn declined the invitations. “Part of doing this work well is doing it from home first,” she said. She is excited to showcase her work in Colorado and start these important conversations in her own community.

After watching “Watch You Rise,” Cohn wants people to understand that they have complete rights to their bodies.

“You have a right to how you respond to things, you have a right to change, you have a right to health, like feeling healthy, to feel empowered,” she said. “The safest place you can ever be is in alignment with your power, which maybe sounds like ‘woo-woo’ bullshit, but like literally. If you are in your body and aware of having autonomy, being accountable, having choice, then if someone hurts you, it’s a lot easier to recover.”