Gabriella Mykal Rape Play film collection, 2023-2025
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Summary
- Creator:
- Mykal, Gabriella and Archive of Documentary Arts (Duke University)
- Abstract:
- Gabriella Mykal is a Queer West Indian American visual artist and filmmaker working across various mediums including film, video installations, music videos, writing, and sculpture. Her film, Rape Play, explores female sexual experiences and discourse, particularly fanfiction and online communities through the use of interviews, lyrical essays, and reenactments. The collection includes two video files of the film, and one bounded volume created and curated by Mykal for the film. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts.
- Extent:
- 20 Gigabytes
0.25 Linear Feet - Language:
- Materials in English.
- Collection ID:
- RL.13114
Background
- Scope and content:
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Collection contains two video files for the documentary film, Rape Play created by Gabriella Mykal in 2023 and one bounded volume created and curated for the film in 2025. Topics featured include female sexual experiences including sexual violence, online subculture, and fanfiction and erotica. Rape Play was acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts Collection Awards, 2023.
- Biographical / historical:
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Gabriella Mykal is a Queer West Indian American visual artist and filmmaker working across various mediums such as film, video installations, music videos, writing, and sculpture. Mykal's works have been shown in multiple film festivals and exhibitions reflecting her documentary work and experimental style. In 2020, Mykal obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Southern Methodist University and in 2023, she obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from California Institute of the Arts.
Rape Play was Mykal's thesis film at the California Institute of the Arts and was the recipient of the Allan Sekula Social Documentary Fund award. The film explores what Mykal refers to as "learned narrativization of sexual experiences" and fanfiction writing amongst teenage girls touching upon topics such as online communities, internet history, sexual assault discourse, and cultural production using interviews, lyrical essays, and fantastical reenactment.
Gabriella Mykal is a 2023 recipient of an Archive of Documentary Arts Collection Award for the film, Rape Play. In 2024, it premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival.
Sources: Interview with 2023 Archive of Documentary Arts Collection Award Winner-Gabriella Mykal, https://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2024/05/29/interview-with-2023-archive-of-documentary-arts-collection-award-winner-gabriella-mykal/, accessed December 12, 2024.
Gabriella Mykal website, http://www.gabriellamykal.com/, accessed December 12, 2024.
- Acquisition information:
- The Gabriella Mykal Rape Play film collection was received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library from Gabriella Mykal as a winner of the 2023 Archive of Documentary Arts Collection Award in 2024 and 2025.
- Processing information:
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Processed by Tere Elizalde, December 2024, May 2025
Accessions described in this collection guide: 2024-0074, 2025-0013
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Subjects
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Contents
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- Preferred citation:
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[Identification of item], Gabriella Mykal Rape Play film collection, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
- Permalink:
- https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1sn0z