“They got progressively harder, Q&A-wise, as word of mouth built around it,” says Corben, sitting in a frantically busy Park City coffee shop. After a daytime screening, a Park City bus was the scene of another debate, much to the alarm of the other passengers, half of whom were on their cell phones. Audience members followed him and producer Alfred Spellman into the lobby and onto the street. screening lasted until 2:30 in the morning.
Corben says that one Q&A after an 11:30 p.m. This amateur critic wasn’t the only one who wouldn’t shut up about “Raw Deal” (which was picked up late last week for distribution by Artisan Studios). After Corben answered it, the first guy piped up again. The director then took a less confrontational question from another audience member. Corben, who looks like what he is, a suburban college kid-rather than, say, Larry Flynt-just stood there, hands clasped, nodding judiciously, as if the guy had made a good point. The man then compared it to a documentary at last year’s festival that featured a woman having sex with hundreds of men. Following an afternoon screening of a documentary about a campus sex case called “Raw Deal: A Question of Consent,” a man sitting near the front of the audience raised his hand and said to the film’s director, Billy Corben, “I can’t believe they allow things like this in the festival.