Overheard a former member of NXIVM talking on a podcast last week and it got me thinking

So apparently there's a debate about whether the documentary 'The Vow' gave too much sympathy to Mark Vicente and not enough to the actual victims. I heard a clip where someone said the filmmakers let him control his own narrative while survivors like Sarah Edmondson got pushed aside. What do you all think, does giving a platform to former insiders help or hurt the people who were actually hurt?

3 comments

3 Comments

gracethomas8d ago

Right, because what abuse survivors really need is another dude with a camera telling his story about how he was kind of around some bad stuff. Maybe next time they can let the actual victims narrate their own trauma instead of making it a platform for someone who had a sudden attack of conscience way too late. The Vow could have been called "Mark's Midlife Crisis: A Documentary" and probably been more honest about the whole thing. Giving someone airtime to explain how they almost helped run a cult until they got uncomfortable isn't really helping anyone but their own ego. It's like letting a getaway driver get sympathy because they felt bad about the bank robberies after the cops showed up.

felixm298d ago

My buddy Dave got pulled into a similar thing a few years ago. He was in this self-help group, started noticing weird stuff like the leader demanding people cut off their families. Dave got out after six months, but he spent the next two years apologizing to his sister for telling her she was toxic. When he tried to warn other people, nobody wanted to hear from the guy who almost drank the kool-aid, they wanted the ones who got hurt.

corah755d ago

Oh but here's what gets me. Nobody talks about how these documentaries actually help the higher ups in the group. When Mark and those guys tell their version, they're basically creating a blueprint for the next generation of cult leaders. "Here's what people will accept, here's where they'll push back, here's how to frame it so you look like the good guy." The real victims' stories get buried because they're messy and complicated and don't make for good TV. Sarah Edmondson's story was powerful but they cut around her to make room for more of Mark's redemption arc. It's like the documentary makers forgot that the people who got out early are the ones who had the most to lose by leaving, not the people who stayed until it became inconvenient for them.