May 25, 2008

Frederick Wiseman's Domestic Violence

The DVD Domestic Violence by Federick Wiseman, takes us into a DV Shelter. This film shows us what leads up to a woman going to a shelter and what happens once she is there.

Wiseman doesn't linger too long at the crime scenes. It's enough to see one woman covered in her own blood, punched so hard in a blow upside the jaw that her own teeth have cut one side of her face wide open. As she gradually comes out of the initial shock of being beaten she realizes that her shoulder, probably dislocated, hurts really bad and she's soon screaming in agony.

To read the entire review and/or purchase a copy of Domestic Violence please follow this link:

Domestic Violence Review


  1. I bet he wasn't allow to record all the signs and posters in the shelter, those with the rules on them... I sure the shelter didn't give him full access..

  2. I am sure also (even though I haven't not veiwed the video yet) that he was not given open access to everything. Just as I am also sure that he used one of the better shelters to make this video. Some shelters out there are actually helping victims, and there are those that have so many rules that a vcitim will feel re-victimized by the experience....all is left up to how desperate a victim actually is to save her life and that of any children a victim may flee with.

  3. I'm not sure if they weren't allowed, since they seemed to be doing everything else, or maybe it wasn't a point in the documentary? Maybe that just wasn't the focus, but the fact that in that shelter they were going to bat for the Victims that came through, and what a shelter should be? Too bad that there aren't more shelters like that.........