The Incel Project (partially found documentary series; 2008-2012)

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Series Logo.

Status: Partially Found

The Incel Project was a TV-MA rated, Blip.tv original documentary series released from 2008-2012.[1] The doc was featured in the "original series" section of Blip.tv (now defunct), a seemingly curated section of the site. The documentary's non-Blip.tv homepage was involuntarycelibacy.com (now defunct). Non-draft or non-final-cut episodes appear to be straight interviews and often exceeded 20 minutes. The series was released as a work-in-progress to be assembled into a condensed final cut documentary, perhaps with other footage.[2] At least 2 different drafts of a final cut were also uploaded to Blip.tv and released.[3] Almost all footage associated with this doc series is lost.

Background and Contents

In 1997, Alana created the Alana's Involuntary Celibacy Project as an academic project and email listserv to fuel academic research into involuntary singledom. This culminated in a series of academic papers by the sociologists Denise Donnelly, Elizabeth Burgess, and Laura Carpenter, among others.

While the email listserv was still open, a separate forum opened called incelsite.com in 2004. This was the first self-described 'incel' forum using conventional forum software. Alana's email listserv also changed ownership to a Canadian computer store owner. Beyond hosting his own forum, the owner of incelsite.com also took up the duty of linking to the older listserv. Incelsite.com closed due to the owner feeling the members were (on the whole) not meeting their goals, and suggested a forum comprised of experts, although no such thing transpired.

In 2006, incelsupport.org started, with many of the same members of incelsite.com. This forum lasted until around 2008, when arguments on the forum about genetic determinism split the forum in two. Those who rejected that involuntary celibacy was caused primarily by genetic factors started incel.myonlineplace.org during 2008. Those who believed it was primarily caused by genetics started a much smaller group at the same time called Involuntary Celibacy Acceptance and Management.

While incel.myonlineplace.org had a subtitle of "Incel Support", it was not the same Incel Support forum as the aforementioned. Someone named, Kaycee led incel.myonlineplace.org, while the previous was led by a Canadian named Cernan. It is rumored that Cernan was not welcome on the newer forum, although this is unconfirmed. It is likely that incel.myonlinplace.org is the forum most associated with this particular documentary.

Author Talmer Shockley is featured in this documentary and may have been a user or lurker of incel.myonlineplace.org. Laura Carpenter is also featured. A similar forum that existed at the time, "love-shy.com", also had its own popular documentary.

The documentary appears to be shot from a social-justice and medical perspective. Content is mostly dry and clinical, and included are highly topical discussions about mental health, the stigma of inceldom, life as an incel, and "coming out" as an incel.

A year after this documentary stalled, in 2013, incel.myonlinplace.org had a server crash, and most posts were lost.

Reception and Cancellation

Various forums discussed the doc before and after development.[4][5][6] One of the forum reviews was positive and talked about a Laura Carpenter interview. They said she talks about involuntary celibacy leading to more involuntary celibacy since the individual's self-esteem is lowered the longer he or she lives with it, and possible partners being turned off by the seeming oddity of an older virgin.

Production halted sometimes between 2012-2014. In 2014, a forum user of a separate forum called PUAhate.com (pick-up-artist hate.com) named Elliot Rodger went on a shooting spree in the name of self-professed involuntary singledom. This event may have precipitated the cancellation of the release of this documentary, even though IncelSupport denied Elliot Rodger was an active member of their forum. However, the series was removed from Blip.tv for unknown reasons at least two months before the shooting, and perhaps the director simply gave up on the project for other reasons.[7]

Unreleased Final Cut

Two drafts of the final cut were released. However, from Webarchive, it is unclear whether a final cut was released or not.

Availability

Most info from the web series is available from Internet Archive snapshots of the channel on Blip.tv. Only segments of 2 interviews survive, and not the full footage of those 2 interviews that were released. These found segments contain psychologist and advocate for love-shy men named Brian Gilmartin, as well as a segment of an interview of author Talmer Shockley. Outside of the Gilmartin and Shockley footage, the rest is lost.

There have been efforts to preserve Blip.tv content before it shut down in 2015. Efforts to find these documentaries in Blip.tv archives have not come to anything as of February 2020.

Possible ledes

Possible people to contact for the lost footage include the author Talmer Shockley, Sogwa (the black female of the film who now publicly leads a Maryland Singles group on Meetup), or Laura Carpenter.

There is link on a german forum to a Youtube channel which used to possibly contain the full documentary.

This Youtube link is now dead, but the channel is still up and appears to have changed by the person who possibly created the original documentary. The channel now is about a closed kickboxing gym in Petersburg Virginia which was called 9round. It is possibly the former owner or media manager of that business made the documentary.

The creator of the documentary was identified by an unknown Youtube commentator, likely a former member of incel.myonlineplace.org. This occurred after the popularity of a 2021 video commentary on this documentary made by The Internet Investigator. The original documentary creator has not responded to polite requests to release the documentary.

Episodes

# Episode Title Runtime Release Date Status
1 Dr. Gilmartin 16:57 June 28th, 2008 Partially Found
2 IncelSupport Member, 40 14:29 July 22nd, 2008 Partially Found
3 IncelSupport Member, Mid-30s 22:06 October 1st, 2008 Lost
4 Two Friends 12:18 June 26th, 2008 Lost
5 Texas Interview 38:07 July 27th, 2009 Lost
6 IncelSupport Member, early-40s 21:03 Sept 7th, 2009 Lost
7 College Student 47:55 Oct 26th, 2009 Lost
8 Gay Man, late-40s 10:37 Jan 6th, 2011 Lost
9 IncelSupport Member, Late-30s 18:43 Nov 30th, 2011 Lost
10 IncelSupport Member, Late-30s 15:37 Jan 29th, 2012 Lost
11 Draft #1[3] ? ? Lost
12 Draft #2[3] ? ? Lost
13 Final Cut ? ? Existence Unconfirmed

Gallery

Dr. Gilmartin

Clip from Dr. Gilmartin (second gen copy).

Clip from Dr. Gilmartin (third gen copy).

Incel Support Member, 40

Clip from Incel Support Member, 40 (second gen copy).

Clip from Incel Support Member, 40 (third gen copy).

External Link

References