This vegan dinner and movie event is raising money for rape kit reform

Nothing sets the mood for Halloween better than a horror film — particularly one involving modern-day witches, Satan and one woman’s experience of being gaslit.

On Oct. 29, Petra’s in Plaza Midwood hosts Fifth Tuesday Dinner + Movie, a fundraising event that includes film, food, themed cocktails and a costume contest. The featured presentation is the 1968 movie “Rosemary’s Baby,” and a three-course vegan meal is curated to complement scenes from the movie.

If you’ve never seen “Rosemary’s Baby,” this is the perfect way to experience the classic, said Sara Whittlesey, one of Fifth Tuesday’s organizers and sous chef at meal delivery food service Nourish Charlotte. “You’re in a like-minded crowd, you’re in a dark room — everything’s created for you to have a multisensory experience with food and the film.”

Helmed by filmmaker and convicted rapist Roman Polanski, the film tells the story of Rosemary (played by Mia Farrow) who is unknowingly raped and impregnated by Satan. It’s dark and suspenseful, and, despite being more than 50 years old and preserved in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, still resonates for today’s audiences.

As Buzzfeed News puts it: “It’s a movie that reflects a keen understanding of gender dynamics and how regularly women are undermined, disbelieved, and made to question their own realities — by their spouses and their doctors as well as the occasional evil coven.”

Although Fifth Tuesday, an event series that falls on every fifth Tuesday, has been around since January, this is only the second time organizers have used the event to raise money for a cause. All of the proceeds from the Oct. 29 event will go toward End the Backlog, a program of the Joyful Heart Foundation working to shed light on the country’s backlog of untested sexual assault kits. Donations go toward passing laws that address comprehensive rape kit reform in all 50 states.

Both Whittlesey and co-organizer Caroline Matula said they’ve experienced violence first hand, and want to raise awareness.

“Violent crimes are unfortunately a part of life,” said Matula, general manager at the soon-to-open Kiki in Plaza Midwood. “It’s human nature. It’s not great, but it is what it is and we have to handle it.”

A part of “handling it,” she added, is talking about the dynamics of abuse and power.

“I love the film ‘Rosemary’s Baby,’” Matula continued, “but [the protagonist Rosemary] gets raped in it. And of course it’s [directed by] Roman Polanski. We were like, you know what, we’re going to show this movie. It’s now a fundraiser.”

In 1977, Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. He fled the country before he could be sentenced and has lived in Europe ever since. Although the charges have remained pending over the past four decades — and four other women have publicly accused the filmmaker of sexual misconduct — it wasn’t until 2018 that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to expel Polanski’s membership.

Some might argue that paying to watch Polanski’s first American film supports a predator. Whittlesey, however, said showing “Rosemary’s Baby” and donating the proceeds to a worthy cause offers an opportunity to counteract the harm the filmmaker has done.

“As a corrective measure for violence that happened against a young femme, let’s help get some rape kits tested. It’s something that needs to be done anyway,” Whittlesey said.

According to End the Backlog, there are hundreds of thousands of kits across the country containing evidence related to sexual assault that have sat in storage facilities without being tested. In North Carolina, the state crime laboratory estimated in February 2018 that more than 15,000 rape kits sitting unprocessed.

In September, Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law the Standing Up for Rape Victims Act (also known as the Survivor Act), which requires sexual assault kits to be tested within 45 days of the kit’s collection. Recently, the Joyful Heart Foundation announced that Charlotte has 1,019 untested rape kits in law enforcement evidence storage facilities.

Fifth Tuesday Dinner + Movie takes place Tuesday, Oct. 29 at Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the film starts at 8 p.m. Purchase tickets, which are $22, here.

This story was originally published October 23, 2019 at 3:40 PM.