La casa viola

A Scavenger Hunt For People Loneliest In Their Own Homes

An eighteen-step scavenger hunt for people loneliest in their own homes. This animated video collage serves as a survival guide and an ode to the imaginations that protect us. Statement from Daniel Lobb, the Director: Our performance is first and foremost a resource for people who are isolated in unsupportive homes. It presents self-preservation strategies to those who rely on media and imagination to withstand in potentially abusive environments. The composition is based on the writer, Lexie Bean, growing up as queer, trans, and a survivor of incest in Michigan and Ohio, which we’ve all processed through our respective art forms. These iterations of inspiration and reformation ultimately led us to a video collage and sound-score that seek to buoy the main text: an ode to imagination, a scavenger hunt, a survival guide. Our hope is to bolster the viewer’s capacity for imaginative resilience.

Over the Kitchen Table

After years of being silenced through violent opposition, Norma Burton, one of the key founders of the first women’s shelter in Tulsa, OK, tells an untold story of the battered women's movement. In the late 1970s and early 1980’s LGBTQ, BIPOC, and formerly abused women across the US gathered in secret to create a grassroots movement that became today's National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, despite persecution and death threats. Norma recounts to her daughter, director Nisha Burton, how she and her collaborators alerted the police of rising cases of domestic violence and ultimately decided to take matters into their own hands by conducting support gatherings in their homes around the kitchen table. These meetings led to the founding of the first battered women’s shelter in Tulsa, OK in 1975. The years that followed were filled with harassment and verbal and physical attacks on Norma and fellow organizers, but today these courageous advocates continue to support the movement.

The Fire That Took Her

Mother-of-two Judy Malinowski, then 31, was doused in gasoline and set on fire by her crazed boyfriend – and one of the first ever to testify from beyond the grave, at the trial for her own murder. A story that lives at the intersection of true crime and #MeToo, THE FIRE THAT TOOK HER goes deep inside a landmark case to ask a timely question: How much must women suffer in order to be believed?

The Perfect Victim

For over thirty years, three women have languished in Missouri State prison under unjust sentences for killing their abusive husbands. Denied the opportunity to enter the abuse into evidence, each of the women represents a system broken by outdated and media-sensationalized stereotypes. When a greater understanding of the "battered" syndrome change legal practices in 2000, Missouri's Governor crafts a new law demanding the parole board reevaluate each woman's case.

Bertrand Cantat : Noir Destin

In 2003, actress Marie Trintignant died after being beaten by her partner Bertrand Cantat. The singer was sentenced to eight years in prison. Once released, Cantat attempted to return to the spotlight. It was an almost impossible comeback, especially since his first wife, Kristina Rady, committed suicide under mysterious circumstances. Who is Bertrand Cantat really? And how does he live today?

Home Truth

In 1999, Colorado mother Jessica Gonzales experienced every parent’s worst nightmare when her three young daughters were killed after being abducted by their father in violation of a domestic violence restraining order. Devastated, Jessica sued her local police department for failing to adequately enforce her domestic violence restraining order despite her repeated calls for help that night. Determined to make sure her daughters did not die in vain, Jessica pursues her case to the US Supreme Court and an international human rights tribunal, seeking to strengthen legal rights for domestic violence victims. Meanwhile, her relationship with her one surviving child, her son Jessie, suffers, as he struggles with the tragedy in his own way. Shot over the course of nine years, Home Truth chronicles one family’s incredible pursuit of justice, shedding light on how our society responds to domestic violence and how the trauma from domestic violence can linger through generations.

Chris Brown: A History of Violence

A biographical documentary that delves into the controversial personal life of iconic singer Chris Brown, charting his journey from a troubled childhood to global superstardom. It explores his violent public record, including allegations of domestic violence, assault charges and sexual misconduct, while questioning how a man with such a turbulent history maintains his celebrity status. With expert and cultural commentary layered throughout, the film offers thoughtful reflections on the cycle of abuse and its lasting psychological impact, shedding light on the experiences of survivors and the aftermath of their trauma.

And So I Stayed

AND SO I STAYED is an award-winning documentary about survivors of abuse fighting for their lives and spending years behind bars. These women paid a steep price with long prison sentences, lost time with loved ones, and painful memories. Formerly incarcerated survivor-advocate Kim Dadou Brown, who met her wife while incarcerated, is a driving force in the passage of New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA), a new law meant to prevent survivors from receiving harsh prison sentences for their acts of survival. Nikki Addimando, a mother of two young children, suffered the consequences when a judge didn’t follow the law’s guidelines. Tanisha Davis, a single mother who was ripped away from her son in 2013, is hopeful the new law is her way out of a harsh prison sentence.

Petit Rempart

Mariem, 53, a former estate agent, has been living at a shelter for several months. Surrounded by women in far more precarious circumstances than herself, she tries to regard her unprecedented social downfall as an immersion in real life. By the time she leaves, Mariem’s view of the world will have changed forever, enriched by all the women she has met along the way.

Dear Dad

Momsy

‘Over the course of several summer days in Split I talked to my mom about everything. I mean, really everything.’

Beaten by My Boyfriend

Stacey Dooley goes behind closed doors and speaks to the now younger face of domestic violence. She questions victims and abusers to try and understand how deep the issues surrounding domestic abuse are for those who have survived and those currently experiencing the abuse.

What Happened, Miss Simone?

The film chronicles Nina Simone's journey from child piano prodigy to iconic musician and passionate activist, told in her own words.

American Hollow

This documentary follows the lives of the Bowling family as they fight to survive in dirt-poor Appalachia. Matriarch Iree has given birth to 13 children, but only two have left to seek better lives in Ohio while the rest have married and started their own impoverished families near home. Uneducated and unskilled, all are unemployed, and domestic violence and alcoholism pose serious problems. The filmmakers explore the family's relationships through interviews and footage of their daily lives.

Welcome Home Freckles

After four years away, Huiju returns home to South Korea. Exchanges with her loved ones are awkward and clumsy. Huiju turns once again to her familiar rituals: pruning the trees, preparing a sauce, tying a braid.

Not Just a Statistic: Stories of Survivors

The story of the South Shore Resource and Advocacy Center, five survivors of domestic violence, and their experience in the Massachusetts justice system.

Violently in Love

Behind the closed doors of the Copenhagen-based women's shelter, the women and children are slowly recovering after having escaped domestic violence. Day by day the women are processing their traumas, building confidence and slowly understanding what it takes to break the cycle of violence.

Untold: Deal with the Devil

Christy Martin broke boundaries and noses as she rose in the boxing world, but her public persona belied personal demons, abuse and a threat on her life.

Blueprint

What if your father murdered your mother? Maeve, Roser, and sisters Perla and Aurora each lost their mother, their father, and their safe home in a single day. Director Sara Kolster, in collaboration with expert Perla Joy, tells their stories about that single day, about how it could happen, but especially about what came afterward. Using tape, they reconstruct the contours of their childhood home, as it was before it became a crime scene, even though it served as a blueprint of their childhood.

Behind the Shield: The Power and Politics of the NFL

Celebrated author and Nation magazine sports editor Dave Zirin tackles the myth that the NFL was somehow free of politics before Colin Kaepernick and other Black NFL players took a knee.