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Beth de Ara\u00fajo<\/strong> was eight years old when she saw something that would linger with her for the rest of her life. But she never really grappled with it until her 20s, when she sat down to write a script about the incident. \u201cI decided to make Josephine<\/em> an extreme version of what it feels like to have female fear and keep it through the eyes of an eight-year-old girl,\u201d she tells Vanity Fair<\/em> in an exclusive first interview about the project.<\/p>\n De Ara\u00fajo\u2019s film Josephine,<\/em> which will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival<\/a> on January 23, follows the parents (Channing Tatum<\/strong><\/a> and Gemma Chan<\/strong>) of a young girl named Josephine (newcomer Mason Reeves<\/strong>) as their family faces trauma and legal proceedings after she accidentally witnesses a violent sexual assault in Golden Gate Park. It\u2019s a harrowing and deeply personal project, requiring a delicate and deliberate touch from de Ara\u00fajo, Tatum, and Chan.<\/p>\n Josephine<\/em> faces sexual assault head on, bringing into the light an experience that\u2019s devastatingly common, but rarely spoken about. Says de Ara\u00fajo, \u201cThere\u2019s so much silence around it\u2014even saying the word rape<\/em> is very uncomfortable for everyone, and I totally understand why. But if we say that this is accepted in society, what else are we willing to accept?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was worried because a star like that can really steamroll over a small indie director like myself,\u201d says de Ara\u00fajo of Tatum. \u201cBut the minute we met, I could feel like he would be totally deferential and had such respect immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n The inciting incident is based closely on de Ara\u00fajo\u2019s memory of going to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco with her father and witnessing a crime. By the time de Ara\u00fajo reached her 20s, it suddenly felt like the only story she could write. \u201cIt kind of came at me in a flood, where I had realized throughout my life my hypervigilance had been growing to the point of paranoia,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd it was the only thing I could do.\u201d<\/p>\n She wrote a first draft in 2014 and submitted her script to the Sundance Labs, where she chiseled and carved it into shape. De Ara\u00fajo won a SFFILM\/Rainin Filmmaking Grant, which allowed her to watch a sexual assault case from start to finish at San Francisco Hall of Justice, helping to inform her next draft. While fine-tuning the script, she\u2019d also started seeing a therapist and working at the Los Angeles Rape and Battering Hotline, which allowed her to serve as a witness advocate for sexual assault victims at the hospital as well. But de Ara\u00fajo had not yet directed a film. So instead of shooting Josephine<\/em> as her debut, she first made Soft & Quiet,<\/em> a horror-fueled thriller that premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in 2022.<\/p>\n Soft & Quiet<\/em> caught the attention of Tatum\u2019s then girlfriend Zo\u00eb Kravitz,<\/strong> who met with de Ara\u00fajo, and suggested that Tatum might be right for the lead role. \u201cIt was really painful to read just because I could tell it was coming from a very real place,\u201d says Tatum of the script. \u201cShe\u2019s so brave and really is never, ever not taking a swing at really trying to tell something from an honest and special place.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n