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Domestic Violence

2002, Movie, NR, 196 mins

Domestic Violence: Review

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
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Crucial viewing from renowned documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman. This gripping, three-hour-plus profile of a Florida domestic abuse shelter opens like a particularly lurid episode of Cops. Tampa police are called out to three different domestic abuse situations: A petty argument between spouses that's about to get out of hand; a mother who's afraid of her disturbed 13-year-old son; and an elderly woman whose husband has left her covered in blood from the three-inch gash on her face. Wiseman then cuts to The Spring, Florida's largest domestic abuse center, where he and his cameras spent two months chronicling this particular social services system and how it benefits the bruised and battered women — and sometimes men — who turn there for help, often as a last resort. In his usual dispassionate matter, Wiseman bears silent witness as a wide variety of clients — from a teary, frightened young wife to a smiling, perfectly composed older woman — undergo the intake process. Case managers collect personal information, attempt to evaluate the danger their clients are in, and outline the rules of the center as well as a list of goals — the last of which includes finding a safe, new residence. Wiseman and his cameras then move to various parts of the facility, a nondescript former warehouse (that's not only a shelter but a fully functioning daycare center and school) as the women undergo individual and group counseling and reveal their heartbreaking stories. A visiting women's group presents an ideal opportunity for officials to offer a number of alarming statistics about the frequency and variety of abuse (which include physical, emotional, verbal, sexual and financial), and lively staff meetings provide a behind-the-scenes look at how The Spring functions. In the past, Wiseman has cast his unflinching and unfailingly perceptive eye across a variety of subjects, all of them, in one sense or another, American institutions: a psychiatric facility, a big-city hospital, an urban high school, a welfare office, a department store, a public housing complex, a small Maine town. Throughout, Wiseman's trademark fly-on-the-wall approach remains the same — he foregoes any kind of narration or on-camera interviews and remains as unobtrusive as possible — although here he's far less ambivalent than usual about how the institution ultimately affects the lives of those who pass through its doors. While maintaining the appearance of clinical objectivity, this sad, occasionally horrifying but often inspiring film is among Wiseman's warmest. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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