Stanford sexual assault victim releases short film

SCREEN CAPTURE / YOUTUBE

Chanel Miller illustrated the animated short film 'I Am With You.'

On the same day that her memoir was released, sexual assault victim Chanel Miller and her publisher released a short animated film on Youtube summarizing the ordeal she underwent.

“When you are assaulted, an identity is given to you. It threatens to swallow up everything you plan to do and be. I became Emily Doe,” Miller says in a voice-over as animations drawn by her appear on screen. “Assault teaches you to shrink, makes you afraid to exist. Shame, really, can kill you.”

The Chinese American woman was raped by a white man on the Stanford campus in 2015. At the time, she was assigned a pseudonym Emily Doe to avoid identifying her as a victim. It wasn't until earlier this month that her true identity was revealed.

Miller wrote, illustrated and narrates the short titled “I Am With You” which was released in conjunction with the release of her memoir “Know My Name,” published by Viking Press.

At the end of the short film, she offers an affirmation: “Nobody wants to be defined by the worst thing that’s happened to them. No one gets to define you. You do. You do. My name is Chanel, and I am with you.”

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