Domestic Violence in Film

PART 2 OF 2

A student of mine asked if I could help him find a film on domestic violence
that he could use as part of a project/presentation he is doing on the
subject.  I guess it could be either a documentary or high-quality feature
film.

Thanks.

-- 
Dr. Emily K. Filardo
Director, Women's Studies
Associate Professor, Dept. of Psychology
Kean University
Union, NJ   07083
efilardo  AT  gmail.com

Although it's not a movie, the 20/20 interview that Diane Sawyer did with  
survivor Susan is a great educational piece. I've used it as a guest lecturer on 
 domestic violence and in my own classes.
 
Kim Feeney, M.A.
siamkat79  AT  aol.com

One of the best films I've seen on the subject is a Spanish film by
Iciar Bollain called 'Te doy mis ojos' (I give you my eyes) or at
least that's how it's been translated in Mexico. I hope you can find
it. All the best.

I still love (and cringe over) ONCE WERE WARRIORS, the 1994 film based on
Alan Duff's novel.

-- 
******************************************
Monica J. Casper, Ph.D.
Director of Women's and Gender Studies
Associate Professor of Sociology
Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies
Vanderbilt University, Garland Hall 220-B
Station B, Box 350086, 2301 Vanderbilt Place
Nashville, TN  37235-0086
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/womens-studies/

Let me add my praise for Once Were Warriors...a most powerful movie
about domestic violence.

Arnie
Arnie Kahn, Psychology MSC 7401 
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807

There's an agonizingly good feature film on this, with Sissy Spacek
and Nick Nolte, called Affliction.  It's almost unbearable to sit
through because it's so painful and terrible, and I haven't seen it in
years now, but I remember it showcased especially well how difficult
it was for Nolte to escape the cycle of violence - he was consumed
with loathing for his father and his father's treatment of his mother,
but couldn't escape the same behavior in himself vis-a-vis Sissy
Spacek.  And there is this marvelous metaphor throughout the film with
this toothache he has - the aching, rotten thing that defines him and
pains him and which he ignores so long that it festers out of control,
and there's this marvelous scene where he pulls his own tooth out.  I
don't even like Nick Nolte (tho I love Spacek, who is reliably good in
this), but he is really tremendous, and the tooth-pulling scene is
almost Greek in its self-mutilating tragedy.

My .02,

C. Heike Schotten
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
University of Massachusetts-Boston
Boston, MA 02125-3393

Someone just recently asked about this because she was adding some films to
a library... perhaps she's still out there and would be kind enough to
repost the responses she got.

I always recommend Defending Our Lives when asked about this. It's
phenomenal. I can't remember if it won an Oscar, but I think it was at least
nominated. It's a short documentary about women in jail for killing their
abusers.

********************************************************************************
Blaise Astra Parker, PhD
Asst. Director of Women's Studies
102 Benson Building
University of Georgia
Athens, GA, 30602
http://www.uga.edu/~wsp
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~blaze
blaiseparkerphd  AT  gmail.com

"If I have any agency, it is opened up by the fact that I am
constituted by a world I never chose. That my agency is riven with
paradox does not mean it is impossible.  It means only that paradox is
the condition of its possibility." - Judith Butler
********************************************************************************

On the same issue, I highly recommend Morag Productions' "When Women Kill",
director Barbara Doran
www.morag.ca/films_whenwomenkill.html

Martin Dufresne

"Dr. Blaise Astra Parker" wrote:

> I always recommend Defending Our Lives when asked about this. It's
> phenomenal. I can't remember if it won an Oscar, but I think it was at
> least nominated. It's a short documentary about women in jail for
> killing their abusers.

Hi everybody,

I maintain an annotated list of films on domestic violence at:

http://creativefolk.com/abusedvd.html

I'm always happy to receive suggestions for titles I've missed!

:-) Gerri

-- 
Gerri Gribi     gerri  AT  creativefolk.com
PO Box 8021  Green Bay, WI  54308 USA

Women's Studies & Folk Music Resources: <http://CreativeFolk.com>
African American Studies Toolkit: <http://AfroAmericanHeritage.com>

Listen to my music Online!
<http://CreativeFolk.com/cds.html>

> On the same issue, I highly recommend Morag Productions' "When Women
> Kill", director Barbara Doran www.morag.ca/films_whenwomenkill.html

I have used this film in classes as well. However, a couple of years
back, the Canadian Broadcasting Company's Fifth Estate aired another
documentary on one of the women in the film, Melissa Friederich. It
seems she actually is suspected of killing two husbands, of poisoning
another, and of engaging in cheque fraud and extortion with all of them.
While her story doesn't change that of the other women in this film or
the many others who are not represented directly, I have subsequently
steered away from the film because it's hard to justify the thing as
'true' when one of the most sympathetic characters has such a
complicated (and undermining) story.  Here is the link to the (other)
documentary:

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/webofdeceit.html

Claudia Malacrida
Associate Professor, Sociology
University of Lethbridge
4401 University Drive
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
T1K 3M4
claudia.malacrida  AT  uleth.ca
 

[re Gerri Gribi's list, mentioned above]
This is a fantastic resource. Thanks for putting it
together, making it available on the Web, and updating it!
Best,
Kinohi

Shoot the Moon with Alan Bates is an excellent film about self
destructive violence in a middle class family.  Almost too painful to
watch.  svf
 
Susan V. Facknitz
English Department

  >Shoot the Moon with Alan Bates is an excellent film
  about self destructive >violence in a middle class
  family.  Almost too painful to watch.
  >svf

  I think it's with Albert Finney and Diane Keaton.
  Arnie

Arnie Kahn, Psychology MSC 7401
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807

[Editor's Note: In an earlier message, Claire Kaplan said that she had  "a
substantial list of films on both sexual assault and domestic violence.
Documentary and narrative films."]

I've sent my list of films to Gerri for inclusion on her website. Joan K
also asked me to post it to the list, so here's the plain text version.
Claire

-- 
Claire N. Kaplan, Ph.D.
Director, Sexual & Domestic Violence Services
University of Virginia Women's Center
PO Box 800588
Charlottesville VA 22908-0588
cnk2r  AT  virginia.edu
http://womenscenter.virginia.edu/sdvs

**************

Films Depicting Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, Child Sexual Abuse and
Stalking
Compiled by Claire N. Kaplan

SA=Sexual Assault
DV= Domestic Violence
CA= Child Abuse
SH= Sexual Harassment

Narrative films (fiction):
SA Accused, The (1988) * Dir: Jonathan Kaplan
SA American Beauty (1999) * Dir: Sam Mendes
SA/DV Basic Instinct (1992) * Dir: Paul Verhoeven
DV/CA Bastard Out of Carolina (1996) * Dir: Anjelica Houston
DV Beauty and the Beast (Disney version)
SA/DV Blue Velvet (1986) * Dir: David Lynch
SA Born in Flames (1983) * Dir: Lizzie Borden(re-released on DVD)
SA Boys Don't Cry (1999) * Dir: Kimberly Peirce
DV Burning Bed, The (TV) (1984) * Dir: Robert Greenwald
SA Cape Fear (1992 version) * Dir: Martin Scorsese
DV Carousel (1956) * Dir: Henry King
DV Chicken Run (animated 2000) * Dir: Peter Lord & Nick Park
CA Chinatown (1974) * Dir: Roman Polanski
SA Clockwork Orange, A (1971) * Dir: Stanley Kubrick
DV/CA Color Purple, The (1985) * Dir: Stephen Spielberg
DV Crimes of the Heart (1986) * Dir: Bruce Beresford
DV Days of Wine and Roses (1962) * Dir: Blake Edwards
DV Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) * Dir: Frank Perry
SA Extremities (1986) * Dir: Robert M. Young
DV Fatal Attraction (1987) * Dir: Adrian Lyne
DV Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) * Dir: Jon Avnet
DV Gaslight (1944) * Dir: George Cukor
SA Gone with the Wind (1939) * Dir: Victor Fleming
DV Great Santini, The (1979) * Dir: Lewis John Carlino
SA Handgun (1983) * Dir: Tony Garnett (AKA Deep In The Heart)
DV Hans Christian Anderson (1952) * Dir: Charles Vidor
SA Higher Learning (1995) * Dir: John Singleton
SA/DV Jagged Edge (1985) * Dir: Richard Marquand
DV Joy Luck Club, The (1993) * Wayne Wang
DV Independence Day (1983) * Dir: Robert Mandel
SA/DV La Strada (1954) Dir: Federico Fellini
SA Mad Max (1983) Dir: George Miller
SA Mona Lisa (1986) Dir: Neil Jordan
SA Monster (2003) * Dir: Patty Jenkins
DV Natural Born Killers (1994) * Dir: Oliver Stone
SH/SA North Country (2005) * Dir: Niki Caro
CA Nuts (1987) * Dir: Martin Ritt
SA Oklahoma! (1955) * Dir: Fred Zinnemann
DV Oliver! (1968) * Dir: Carol Reed
DV/CA Once Were Warriors (1994) * Dir: Lee Tamahori
SA Once Upon a Time in America (1984) * Dir: Sergio Leone
DV Piano, The (1993) * Dir: Jane Campion
CA Prince of Tides, The (1991) * Dir: Barbra Streisand
SH Question of Silence, A [De stilte rond Chrstine M.] (1982) * Dir:
Marleen Goris
SA Pulp Fiction (1996) * Dir: Quentin Tarantino
DV Raging Bull (1980) * Dir: Martin Scorsese
SA Rashomon (1950) * Dir: Akira Kurosawa
SA Shame (1987) * Dir: Steve Jodrell (Australia-US version aired on
Lifetime)
SA Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) * Dir: Frank Darabont
DV Sleeping With the Enemy (1991) * Dir: Joseph Ruben
DV/SA Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951) * Dir: Elia Kazan
SA Sudden Impact (1983) * Dir: Clint Eastwood
DV Taming of the Shrew (various versions)
SA Tess (1979) * Dir: Roman Polanski
SA Thelma and Louise (1991) * Dir: Ridley Scott
SA/DV Thousand Pieces of Gold (1991) * Dir: Nancy Kelly
SA Time to Kill, A (1996) * Dir: Joel Schumacher
SA To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) * Dir: Robert Mulligan
SA Two Women [La Ciociara] (1960) * Dir: Vittorio De Sica
SA Unforgiven (1992) * Dir: Clint Eastwood
DV War of the Roses, The (1991) * Dir: Danny De Vito
DV What's Love Got to Do with It? (1993) * Dir: Brian Gibson
DV Wide Sargasso Sea, The (1993) * John Duigan
DV A Jury of Her Peers (1980) Short film (30 minutes) * Dir: Sally Heck

Documentaries
DV Against My Will * Dir: Ayfer Ergun (First Run / Icarus Films)
CA Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids (2004) * Dir: Zana Briski
SA Brandon Teena Story, The (1998) * Dir: Susan Muska^U and GrTta
Olafsd=ttir
DV Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan (2004)* Dir: Petr Lom (First Run/Icarus
Films)
SA Crimes of Honour * Dir: Shelley Saywell (First Run/Icarus Films)
DV Defending Our Lives (1993) * Dir: Margaret Lazarus (Cambridge Doc.
Films)
DV Domestic Violence (2001) * Frederick Wiseman
SA Game Over: Gender, Race and Violence in Video Games (2002) * Media
Education Foundation
DV Hidden Victims: Children of Domestic Violence (2000)
SA/SH Killing Us Softly (3): Advertising's Image of Women (2002) * Media
Education Foundation
SA No! The Documentary (2005) * Dir: Aishah Shahidah Simmons (California
Newsreel)
SA Rape Is~E (2002) * Dir: Margaret Lazarus and Renner Wunderlich
(Cambridge Doc. Films)
CA Searching for Angela Shelton (2004) * Dir: Angela Shelton
SA Senorita Extraviada, Missing Young Woman (2001) * Dir: Lourdes Portillo
DV Sentenced to Marriage (2004) * Dir: Anat Zuria (Women Make Movies)
SA Sentencing the Victim (2002) * Dir: Liz Oakley & Joanna Katz (IVS
Productions)
SA Spin the Bottle: Sex, Lies and Alcohol (2004) * Media Education
Foundation
SH Taking on the Boys' Club (2002) * ABC News (Films for the Humanities &
Sciences)
CA The Children We Sacrifice (2000) * Dir: Grace Poore (Women Make Movies)
CA The Day I Will Never Forget (2002) * Dir: Kim Longinotto (Women Make
Movies)
SA Tough Guise (2002) * Dir: Sut Jhally (Media Education Foundation)
SH War Zone (1998) * Dir: Maggie Hadleigh-West (Media Education Foundation)

My office maintains WAVE: Women's Audiovisuals in English, a database of
women-focused videos/DVDs, accessible at
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WAVE. "Violence against women" is
one of the broad headings we offer as a quick search. There are 335 items
under that heading. A search of the more specific term "domestic violence"
turns up 75 of them.


****************************************************
Phyllis Holman Weisbard, Women's Studies Librarian
University of Wisconsin System
430 Memorial Library, 728 State Street
Madison, WI 53706
pweisbard  AT  library.wisc.edu
http://womenst.library.wisc.edu
****************************************************