The film Josephine, directed by Beth de Araujo, premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section. It follows an 8-year-old girl who witnesses a rape in a park, exploring the lasting trauma on her and her family. Inspired by the director's own childhood experience, the movie highlights the challenges of legal proceedings and parental responses.
Beth de Araujo drew from a personal childhood trauma to create Josephine, a psychological drama that fictionalizes an incident she witnessed as a child in Golden Gate Park. At around 8 years old, de Araujo and her father stumbled upon a rape in progress; her father chased the offender while she comforted the victim. This event, which has shaped her life, took 11 years to develop into a film with support from the Sundance Film Institute.
In the story, Josephine (Mason Reeves), an energetic second-grader, walks in the park with her father Damien (Channing Tatum) on a Sunday morning. She briefly runs ahead and hides behind a tree, witnessing a man (Philip Ettinger as Greg) assault a woman emerging from a restroom. Damien arrives, calls 911, and joins the chase as police apprehend the attacker. The victim identifies him, but Josephine's life unravels from the trauma.
The once-lively girl becomes sullen, researches the term "rape" on her phone, distrusts boys at school—even assaulting a classmate—and is haunted by visions of the rapist. Her parents, Damien and Claire (Gemma Chan), struggle to cope: Damien pushes for self-defense training, while Claire, now pregnant with a boy, resists involving Josephine in the trial. The victim relocates and stops cooperating, leaving Josephine as the key witness. Experts on child testimony enter the fray, exposing flaws in prosecuting such cases.
De Araujo's second feature after her 2022 debut Soft & Quiet plays like a docudrama, graphically depicting the assault for a runtime of 1 hour 59 minutes. Reviews note Tatum's effective shift to a serious role as a well-meaning but flawed father, and Chan's strong performance. Producers include David Kaplan, Josh Peters, de Araujo, Marina Stabile, Tatum, Chan, Mark H. Rapaport, Josh Beirne-Golden, and Crystine Zhang. The film underscores the ripple effects of sexual violence on bystanders, particularly children, and frustrations in the justice system.
