“Private Violence” Honored with True Life Award at True/False Film Fest

WIVP supported “Private Violence” was honored to receive the True False Film Festival “True Life” Award.  In 2007, the True/False Film Fest attempted to highlight and address this reality by establishing the True Life Fund, which raises and awards money to one or more on-camera subjects of a film screened during each year’s festival. “Private Violence,” a documentary about domestic violence, will be highlighted as this year’s True Life Fund recipient film.

“Private Violence” attempts to dispel the myths of domestic violence and portray its realities by examining the common social refrain “Why don’t they just leave?” frequently posed about victims of domestic violence. The film examines these issues by documenting the experiences of Deanna Walters, who is attempting to deal with and move forward from domestic violence she faced at the hands of her ex-husband, and Kit Gruelle, an advocate for victims of domestic abuse, who also survived domestic violence.

Gruelle and Walters, who will attend screenings of the film at this year’s festival along with the film’s director, Cynthia Hill, will receive the money raised by the True Life Fund.  “I’m thrilled about the award,” Gruelle says. “I’m still not exactly sure what it means yet or anything like that, but I think it’s great that our film and, more importantly, this issue that affects 25 percent of women — and I think that’s a conservative number — are getting this kind of attention.”  For Hill, the award is gratifying because it provides both recognition for the work of her subjects and a sense of confirmation that her film is having an effect.

An interesting note is that WIVP supported documentary “Bully” won the same award in 2012.