March is Women’s History Month, a time to celebrate the voices and stories women bring into the world. For Boston filmmaker Sophia Horowitz, storytelling is also a way to create space for healing. Her new film, “The Prince Charming Theory,” explores the often-untold journey survivors face after sexual assault and what reclaiming their agency and finding their voice again looks like.
Created by an all-women writing, directing and producing team, the film is also partnering with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center to raise funds for survivor services. It’s a reminder of how creative work can spark conversations and community support, and that’s why we’re honoring this work on the Joy Beat. Horowitz joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to share more about the project. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Arun Rath: “The Prince Charming Theory” talks about a painful topic — sexual assault — but your film focuses on what happens after: reclaiming agency. What drew you to telling this particular part of the story?
Sophia Horowitz: I feel like it’s always misunderstood and never really shown properly in [the] media. We always see the event itself and essentially the trauma, and we never see what happens next. Obviously, when dealing with this topic and everything, a bulk of it happens with the journey towards healing, and so it was something that I was always really drawn towards — [the idea] of what if we show what is usually never shown, and what is that first step towards the whole process that comes after?
Rath: It’s interesting hearing you talk about that, because it feels like we, long ago, made the proper jump from using the term “victim” to “survivor,” but even though we’re using the term “survivor,” we’re not telling the story of the surviving.
Horowitz: Exactly, yeah.
Rath: The project was created by an all-women writing, directing and producing team, and a largely woman-led crew. Talk about how that shaped the way the story was developed and what the environment was like on set.
Horowitz: I love my team so much, and I’m so grateful that we were able to have all of them [be] a part of it. We knew we really wanted to have an all-women producing team and essentially form this amazing group of women who [had] actually never produced at this level before because they were never given the opportunity. They were so eager to really shape the story into something amazing and give it their all.
And then, going on to set, we ended up having a mostly female crew. That was kind of more so by accident, because it was all these women were drawn to this story and really wanted the opportunity. They were amazing to work with. It created this amazing environment on set that, while we’re filming these vulnerable scenes — we actually had a child actor on set as well — it was this really warm and lovely environment where everyone knew when to kind of step forward to work really hard, and also [know] when to step back and kind of let things breathe.
It was just … this unspoken communication that we’re able to have, just by knowing a lot of how women operate in a modern society, they kind of just naturally knew when to step forward and to step back.
Rath: Wow. Tell us a bit about the story. What is “The Prince Charming Theory” about?
Horowitz: “The Prince Charming Theory” follows our protagonist, named Clara. As she babysits a spunky 5-year-old named Olive and starts telling her all of her bedtime stories, retelling the fairy tale of Prince Charming and a first date, she starts to piece together that the night she had prior with her boyfriend wasn’t as magical and realistic as she may have seen. We start to kind of piece together that there was some sexual assault going on there, and we start to see her take that first step towards realizing that, finding community and starting to heal.
Rath: The script was selected as a second rounder at the Austin Film Festival. You’re one of the youngest writers ever accepted there — first off, congratulations on that! I’ve heard a lot from filmmakers about what those kinds of film festivals can mean for getting a project like this together. What did the recognition mean for you and this project?
Horowitz: I mean, I never thought that was going to happen, first of all. I wrote the script a while back and really just wanted to get feedback on it, so I decided to put it through the festival circuit before making it. We started to get some really good feedback, and I decided I wanted to make it. And then, just as it was getting off the ground, we got the news that it got into the Austin Film Festival, and it just completely took off in a lot of ways.
I got to get some amazing feedback from the writers there, [who] are some of the top in the game. I got to have my work featured, which was really great for getting more attention for this work and getting it out there, and a lot of the careers of the people who are working on it. It was an incredible opportunity that was going on as we were getting the film off the ground.
Rath: We have to mention that you’re partnering with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center for its fundraising campaign, so as this project is taking off, it’s having a real-world impact on what the film is about.
Horowitz: Correct.
Rath: That’s got to feel awesome!
Horowitz: Yeah, it’s absolutely awesome. We’ve been reaching out with a ton of community partners, just so we can get it to a larger audience. I feel like a lot of films get stuck in the niche a little bit, so we’re trying to break out and get into new audiences. We’re doing a lot of work with our community partners, like with the Coolidge Corner Theatre, some local artists, a few restaurants, as well as the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.
Rath: With all these partners getting this film out into so many venues now, what are you hoping that people take away from the film?
Horowitz: I’m hoping that people take away that these stories are really common, unfortunately, they do happen. And that they [learn] how to communicate better with survivors and how to connect with them in a meaningful and heartfelt way, that isn’t harmful to either of the parties.
Rath: Brilliant. I’m wondering, you’ve talked about the production of this film and the team you’ve assembled and how you worked together, and it sounded downright magical. I’m curious if having gone through this, are you going to try to keep this team together? Are you going to do another film?
Horowitz: I feel like after this, some of them are stuck with me for a little while. I keep joking with a few of them, like, “You’re stuck with me for life after this!” So, I do have a few new projects in the works, and we have a few returning crew, so we’ll see how many return and how many stick. But there are definitely a few that are stuck with me.
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