Private Violence

UPDATE!

Friends, 

We did it! We've reached our goal and we couldn't have done it without you. This has been a true team effort from start to finish.

For those who still wish to contribute we want you to know that any additional funds raised will be set aside for community based events and trainings. If you are interested in bringing Private Violence to your community please contact us through Facebook or the Private Violence website. 

Why Private Violence Matters to Me

I’m a domestic violence survivor. And I’ve been an advocate for victims/survivors of domestic violence for over twenty-five years. I’m an advocate because I’ve been lucky enough to have kind, caring people come into my life at critically important times and I know what a difference it makes. I’m an advocate because I know how difficult it is to deal not only with an abusive partner but also with oppressive systems that rarely deliver justice to victims. And I’m an advocate because I love being a cheerleader for women who are in the process of transcending the violence they have experienced. It’s like watching a birth.

For the last ten years I’ve been working with a talented filmmaking team to create Private Violence, a feature-length documentary film and multimedia project. I started the project because I wanted to change the national dialogue about domestic violence and set people straight on the idea that “all she has to do is leave.” Domestic violence is at the core of so many other kinds of violence. It’s critical that we understand the root causes and how what goes on behind closed doors affects our society. 

We have extraordinary footage of everyone from policy makers to historians to activists, including our executive producer, Gloria Steinem, and Vice President Joe Biden. But the documentary centers on stories of domestic violence survivors, their families, and advocates.  Featured in the film is Deanna Walters, a young woman I met in an advocacy training session I facilitated in Western N.C. Deanna told her story for the first time to the women gathered there. She described her kidnapping and beating by her estranged husband Robbie in the cab of his 18-wheeler, in front of their three-year old daughter Martina. An Oklahoma cop who stopped them said of Deanna, “I had never seen anyone in that bad of shape. I truly believe that if I hadn’t stopped them, she’d be dead.” Deanna’s transformation from victim to survivor is at the heart of the film. 

So far, we have produced Private Violence: The Trainer’s Edition, a short documentary that Gloria Steinem described as “the best film I’ve seen on domestic violence.” We’ve also finished A New Kind of Strength, a short film about men working to end violence against women. Right now, we are close to finishing the feature film version of Private Violence. With your help, we will be ready to show a final edit by October 2012, in honor of Domestic Violence month.

What We Need and What You Get

We need to raise $15,000 to complete the final edit. After years of fundraising, outreach, production, and editing, we are so close to having a finished film! We have winnowed down literally over a hundred hours of footage to create this feature length documentary. I am working with the award-winning filmmaker Cynthia Hill to use Deanna’s story to illuminate and explore the complexities of domestic violence, and to demonstrate that domestic violence is a crime that reaches beyond a particular race or class of women. 

We’re most excited about the perk that is available to everyone who makes a $10 donation and up. The battered women’s movement has always been made up of people from all walks of life who came together motivated by one common goal: to end violence against women. By supporting this project, you will have an opportunity to honor someone in your life or community who is helping to make a difference. Or you can take this opportunity to memorialize someone who lost their life to domestic violence. These tributes will live on a dedicated page on the Private Violence website.

Other perks include DVDs of our two short films, a finished copy of the feature length film, an exclusive invitation to meet Gloria Steinem at our NYC film premier, and more!

Plus, your contribution to Private Violence is a tax-deductible donation (minus the actual cost of the Perk). You will receive a letter from our fiscal sponsor, the Southern Documentary Fund, for your tax records.

The Impact

We have delivered over 500 copies of Private Violence: The Trainer’s Edition across the United States and around the world. In the state of Tennessee, the DVD was viewed by 18,000 social workers and criminal justice professionals. The short documentary A New Kind of Strength has been viewed online over 250 times, in countries as far flung as New Zealand, Australia, Russia, Poland, Italy, England, Canada, and France. And the Private Violence trailer on our website (www.privateviolence.com) has been seen by over 2600 people. We’ve already shown that we know how to make compelling documentary films that make a real impact. 

We have the support of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Futures Without Violence, the National Center of Domestic and Sexual Violence, and other state and local organizations that are ready and waiting to share the feature length version of Private Violence with their constituents. In other words, we have a guaranteed national and international audience! You are making a contribution to a documentary that will do a lot more than sit on a shelf. It will be a catalyst for awareness and, most importantly, change.

If you can make a donation to Private Violence – thank you! But if you’re not in a position to give, but want to support the project, please spread the word to your friends, your colleagues, your families – anyone who you know who wants to help make a difference. 

Who We Are