When David offered Mary a job on the set of a major feature film in 2016, it seemed like a golden opportunity. Shed moved to Vancouver the previous year to start her dream career and, at 28, found herself working 100 hours a week on various gigs across production sites. Now, David, in his 40s, an assistant location manager with a great reputation, was offering her a job she couldnt pass up: production assistant in the location department of a big-budget production.

The job offer came with some unwelcome flourishes, though. According to Mary, David had seen some recent photos of her and, during their initial conversation about the job, commented on how attractive he found her. Mary, still new to the industry and eager to advance, said she was thrilled about the opportunity and decided to overlook his remarks.

But a few weeks into the job, Mary said David invited her back to his office to call her a cab after a crew party at a nearby bar. Once there, instead of picking up the phone, he asked her to sit down and listen to music. She took a seat in one of his office chairs, and, as a Prince record played, she said he began massaging her shoulders before reaching under her shirt to fondle her bare breasts.

I was completely frozen, Mary not her real name told HuffPost in a phone conversation. (She asked that identifying details about her alleged harasser, her production team and her union be omitted for fear of professional repercussions. David is also a pseudonym.) I had no voice. The best way I could describe it would be like a night terror, when you want to scream, but cant. I wanted to shove his hands off. I wanted to slap him, but I was completely frozen in fear.

After several minutes, Mary said she was able to push David away and tell him she was leaving. She rushed home, in shock. The next day, she reported what happened to two superiors, the key production assistants on set. Human resources soon reached out to Mary to address the incident, as did her union. HuffPost has reviewed emails between Mary and a human resources representative from the studio running the production, in which the representative encourages Mary to continue business as usual until the situation is resolved. Soon after, Mary received an apology letter from David. But several weeks later, after filming at the Vancouver location wrapped, Mary was unexpectedly let go from the production. David was not.

Two years later, the 31-year-old is haunted by the way she was treated.

What Mary experienced was not an isolated incident. Over the course of four months, HuffPost spoke to more than 25 people, including nearly 20 women who work behind the scenes in the film industry in Los Angeles, New York and Vancouver. These women spanned departments from production assistants to cinematographers, set dressers to makeup artists but together their stories painted a picture of an industry that is at best passively uninviting and at worst openly hostile to women, especially those who are just beginning to build their careers. These women are not Hollywood heavyweights, but they, too, are ready for a cultural reckoning in their workplaces.