ECPFS Films

Fall 2007

Domestic Violence
Monday 11/12 7:30 pm, Hibbard 103, UWEC

Domestic Violence 2
Wednesday 11/14 7:30 pm, Hibbard 103, UWEC

From Frederick Wiseman, America's leading inventor and practitioner of cinema verité, these films offer an exhaustive, harrowing, two-part documentary examination of common working class struggles in attempting to deal with the consequences of domestic violence. Domestic Violence and Domestic Violence 2 were filmed in Tampa, Florida but that city functions here as an exemplary 'Everytown, USA'. Domestic Violence shows the police responding to domestic violence calls as well as the work of The Spring, the principal shelter in Tampa for women and children who have suffered as victims of domestic violence. Sequences with the police include response, intervention, and attempted resolution of domestic violence calls. Sequences at the Spring include intake interviews, individual counseling sessions, anger management training, group therapy, staff meetings, conversations among clients, and discussions between clients and staff. Since two-thirds of the residents at the shelter are children, the film also shows many sequences of school activities, therapy sessions for children where domestic violence is openly discussed, and counseling for parents and children organized around children's issues with their experience of domestic violence.

Domestic Violence 2 takes place in arraignment, misdemeanor, and injunction courts in Hillsborough County (where Tampa, Florida is the county seat). The courts here deal with issues including bail, bond, release pending trial, injunctions regulating time and place of parental visits, restraining orders, regulations concerning conditions of contact with children, support payments, and the courts' ultimate decisions concerning fault and punishment. Judges and lawyers interrogate those who come before them and elicit riveting stories concerning couples' relationships and the specific forms of violence that develop between partners in these relationships. This is documentary film that maintains the power of the best dramatic fiction while revealing the brutal truth concerning one of the most pervasive and destructive forms of physical, psychological, institutional, and structural violence operating across the US today. Facilitated discussion will follow each screening.

Each film stands on its own and can be attended separately. The films are not rated, yet parents and guardians should exercise caution versus minors attending these screenings due to the often explicit and disturbing images and accounts of violence the films address.

Spring 2007 Films

Spring 2006 Films