Premieres Sunday, February 16 At 11PM ET/PT As Part of Network�s Groundbreaking �Stop Violence Against Women� Campaign
NEW YORK--(COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Feb 3, 2003--The statistics are staggering. Nearly four million women are physically assaulted by their male partners every year. One out of every four women on college campuses has been a victim of a rape or attempted rape. Almost one-half of all immigrant women experience some kind of domestic violence. But increasingly, courageous women are refusing to be treated as victims by challenging a judicial system that has, for so long, stigmatized them into a silence of shame.
�Together: Stop Violence Against Women,� premiering Sunday, February 16 at 11 PM ET/PT on Lifetime Television, profiles four women who overcame fear and helped change a system which often protects perpetrators more than victims. Along with specially themed episodes of the Lifetime drama series The Division, Strong Medicine and For the People, also airing that Sunday evening, and the reality series Intimate Portrait and Final Justice, the documentary is one of the programming centerpieces of Lifetime�s �Stop Violence Against Women� public awareness campaign.
For this campaign, Lifetime has partnered with leading national non-profit organizations such as the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN); the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV); V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls; the National Domestic Violence Hotline; National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC); and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, to raise awareness of domestic abuse and sexual assault.
�Together: Stop Violence Against Women� is hosted by the husband/wife team of actress Angie Harmon and NFL star Jason Sehorn, underscoring the campaign�s message that women and men need to work together to end the pervasive problem of violence against women.
Produced by award-winning filmmakers Rory Kennedy and Liz Garbus, and directed by Kristi Jacobson, of Moxie Firecracker Films, the documentary tells each of the four women�s stories with compassion and candor through intimate interviews with the women themselves. The program also features interviews with advocates such as Jackson Katz, who works with college men on campuses across America and has pioneered a campaign to stop gender violence by bringing up the issue of men, not as perpetrators, but as part of the solution. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, who established a unique and comprehensive program for helping victims of domestic violence, is also featured.
�TOGETHER: STOP THE VIOLENCE�
THEIR STORIES
VANESSA: �It�s safer to stay, at least you�re alive.�
Women face barriers as they try to escape their situation, from being ostracized by their friends and families to anger from the very children they are trying to save.
Vanessa is a bright and articulate African-American mother of two sons who spent 10 years in an abusive marriage. In deep denial, it took years for her to terminate the relationship. �I never saw myself as one of those women. I was coming from a middle class home. I worked full time. This is not me.�
Once her spouse threatened her with a gun, Vanessa finally decided to get help and leave the relationship. After spending a year living in the shelter system, Vanessa found help from a new program of intervention and counseling at Brooklyn�s Kings County District Attorney�s Office that works with victims of domestic violence. The program was established by Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, who has dedicated his life to helping stop domestic violence, motivated by his painful childhood memories of witnessing his father savagely beating his mother.
KORI: �The only punishment he got for raping me was not being allowed at my school.�
Sexual assault on college campuses is one of the most underreported crimes in the country. All too often, college authorities fail to see date rape as rape. Less than one percent of these cases result in an actual conviction.
Kori was raped four years ago in her first term of freshman year at a large university by an athlete she knew. She had returned to a male friend�s dorm after a party. Thinking it would be more dangerous to go home alone that night, she decided to sleep on a couch. She refused the advances of the athlete, who finally overpowered her. Despite Kori�s repeated protests, Kori says the man raped her for five hours. The accused rapist later admitted that he heard Kori say �no,� but did not think she meant it.
By showering, Kori unfortunately destroyed the evidence. However, she couldn�t tolerate that the athlete would go unpunished and reported the incident to school authorities. The athlete was expelled, but no other charges were pressed against him.
GAYLA: �I did have fear and shame, but that is why I kept quiet for such a long time�even when he made love with me he was violent, extremely violent.�
In addition to the fear of their abusers, immigrant women confront the fear of deportation and losing their children, grounded in a mistrust of police and authorities experienced in their native lands. As well, there is a deep cultural acceptance of men as batterers in some Latino cultures.
A native of Guatemala, Gayla emigrated to Los Angeles 22 years ago from a large, poor family where she had never experienced any violence � making her ashamed of telling her family about her spousal abuse. For seven long years, she endured beatings at the hands of her husband, a butcher, who repeatedly threatened to kill her.
After her husband pinned Gayla against the wall with a knife, the police were called. A judge referred her to the East Los Angeles Women�s Center where she entered the shelter system with her young son, got counseling and finally permanent housing, and has now become an advocate for other Latina women suffering from domestic violence.
TONDA: �I just kept saying to myself, over and over, �get the evidence, you are stronger, you are smarter.��
One in 12 women will be stalked in their lifetime and one million women are stalked every year. Stalking is not merely a nuisance-type problem since stalkers or �Peeping Toms� often have serious intent to harm.
On September 13, 2002, Tonda Soisson, a single mother, says a man entered her house and raped her as her two young children lay sleeping. As she fought him off, he told Tonda that if she didn�t stop resisting, he would rape her seven-year-old daughter instead.
Tonda kept her wits long enough to gather evidence � semen whose DNA would help prove the man guilty. Now Tonda has become an outspoken crusader for legislation related to fighting rape and stalking, demanding that laws be changed. Among the laws that she would like changed are the laws concerning restraining orders. Currently in Florida, the laws require that repeated acts of violence be committed before issuing a restraining order, unless the victim lives with or is related to the suspect in some way.
The Producers: Rory Kennedy and Liz Garbus of Moxie Firecracker Inc., have pursued their unique filmmaking vision, producing documentaries that illuminate larger social issues by telling the stories of everyday people. They have produced and directed films for HBO, A&E;, MTV, TLC, Lifetime, Showtime, Discovery, Channel 4 UK and The Sundance Channel. Director Kristi Jacobson joins the Moxie Firecracker team with a background in social justice filmmaking. Most recently, her directorial debut, �American Standoff,� produced with Academy Award-winner Barbara Kopple, premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and aired on HBO. Her work has also appeared on Lifetime, A&E;, PBS and ABC.
LIFETIME is the #1 cable television network in primetime and the leader in women�s television. LIFETIME is committed to offering the highest quality entertainment and information programming, and advocating a wide range of issues affecting women and their families. Launched in 1984, LIFETIME serves over 86 million households nationwide, available on more than 11,000 cable systems and alternative delivery systems. In 1998 LIFETIME launched a 24-hour sister service, the Lifetime Movie Network, now in over 36 million homes, and a second sister service, Lifetime Real Women, launched in August 2001. On the web, Lifetime Online (www.lifetimetv.com) features informational resources and interactive entertainment. All four services, LIFETIME Television, Lifetime Movie Network, Lifetime Real Women and Lifetime Online, are part of LIFETIME Entertainment Services, a 50/50 joint venture of The Hearst Corporation and The Walt Disney Company.
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