Washington and Lee School of Law
Millhiser Moot Court Room
Zoom Panel
Professor Rebecca Richman Cohen, Harvard Law
Rebecca Richman Cohen is an Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker, who teaches courses on media theory and advocacy at Harvard Law School. Through her work, she has examined a range of topics including the prosecution of war crimes in Sierra Leone, responses to sexual violence, cannabis legalization, and biodynamic winemaking. Her SXSW and Tribeca-award-winning documentaries have been hosted on platforms including HBO, Amazon, Netflix, the New York Times, Al Jazeera, public television and more.
THE RECALL: REFRAMED examines the 2018 recall of California Judge Aaron Persky, who lost his judgeship after handing down a sentence deemed too lenient by many in the infamous sexual assault case involving Stanford swimmer Brock Turner. The recall came at the height of the #MeToo movement, and some hailed it as a victory against rape culture, white privilege, and a system stacked against survivors of sexual violence. But there’s more to the story. The film offers competing perspectives and asks the difficult question: Who actually bears the burden when we demand harsher punishment for a privileged white defendant?