Los Angeles Premiere of Liberated: The New Sexual Revolution, Examines Millennial and GenZ Hookup Culture

Casual sex may seem like old news, but Benjamin Nolot’s documentary Liberated: The New Sexual Revolution warns that millennial and GenZ college students are so immersed in media and pornography that it’s not just about free love anymore. With sex identified by students as nothing more than “a commodity,” the rise of sexual violation and assault on college campuses nationwide comes as no surprise. With cases reported from California (e.g., Brock Turner in People v. Turner) to Texas (e.g., the Baylor football scandal in Elizabeth Doe vs. Baylor University), and in a time when one in five women will be sexually assaulted in college (source: White House Council on Women and Girls), the need for a new sexual revolution is clear.

Liberated: The New Sexual Revolution will hold its Los Angeles Premiere during the Cinema at the Edge Film Festival on Friday, April 28, at 9PM, at the Edgemar Center for the Arts, 2347 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90405. Director Benjamin Nolot, Producer Morgan Perry, and Emmy®-nominated Executive Producer SJ Murray, along with Kimmy Andrews, one of the young women featured in the film, will be in attendance and will host a Q&A with the audience immediately after the screening.

Even Nolot, who previously made a film on sex-trafficking, was shocked by the sinister underpinnings of the spring break culture. Sexual assault, violence, rape and harassment occur all too frequently amidst the beaches, where the objectification of women—and men’s entitlement to women’s bodies—runs rampant. In counterbalance, men feel the pressure to perform due to expectations of masculinity set forth by pop culture. The result when mixed with lots of booze and recreational drugs? The perfect storm. It’s Nolot’s goal to roll out a nationwide tour for Liberated on college campuses, to raise conversations on where the culture is at with sexuality, with the hope of “adopting an empathetic way of being in the world so that we can be truly free—and whole.”

It took Nolot and his award-winning team more than four years to produce Liberated. The film features expert appearances by notable sociologists, educators and authors on modern dating: College Football Hall of Famer Don McPherson (donaldmcpherson.com), Jackson Katz (jacksonkatz.com), TED speaker Dr. Tony Porter (acalltomen.org), Donna Freitas (donnafreitas.com), Sut Jhally (sutjhally.com), Caroline Heldman (oxy.edu/faculty/caroline-heldman), Gail Dines (gaildines.com), Robert Jensen (robertwjensen.org) and Kim Biddle (savinginnocence.org).

Brooke Elise Axtell (sheisrising.org), survivor advocate and featured speaker at the 2015 Grammys, joins Kim Biddle as a film ambassador for Liberated. Axtell notes: “Liberated is a powerful film that not only exposes the realities of hookup culture and roots of sexual violence, it points to the possibility of freedom. Freedom from confining gender scripts. Freedom for connection and authentic self-expression. All the compelling stories in the film illustrate this truth: it is time for a new sexual revolution.” Axtell (brooke(at)brookaxtell(dot)com) and Biddle (kim(at)savinginnocence(dot)org) are both available for comments.

A trailer for the film is available for preview along with bios for the team: liberatedfilm.com.