A Dearly Bought Kiss

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'When a man kisses a woman against her will, she is fully entitled to bite his nose off, if she so pleases.'

Christa Jarrold is a London based illustrator, animator and director. Her 60 second short highlights a famous 180-year-old English legal case often cited as the forerunner of 'no means no' within legislation dealing with sexual assault and consent.

The newspaper headline 1837 'A Dearly Bought Kiss,' mocked a Thomas Saverland who had brought an action against Miss Caroline Newton. The crime? After Saverland tried to forcibly kiss Newton - in self defence- she bit off the left half of his nose.

Fortunately, the judge ruled against him, stating "when a man kisses a woman against her will, she is fully entitled to bite his nose off, if she so pleases."

Christa Jarrold 'I made this film in just a couple of weeks, and set the one minute parameter as a kind of storytelling challenge for myself. I decided to tell it through the voice of a teenager, because it’s kind of the natural way teenagers talk, fast and to the point with some added melodrama, which enabled me to inject such a serious subject with some humour. Sexual assault and violence is a difficult subject to get right tonally, but a bit of humour helps an audience digest what is being presented. The early 1800s was a depressing place for most but here was a woman willing to fight back.'

CREDITS

Filmmaker: @christajarrold.art

Sound design: @dogbotic

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