HITTING HOME: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Frederick Wiseman, USA, 2001
Tuesday 18 February 2003 9pm-12.15am
Frederick Wiseman's film is an unblinking portrait of the circumstances in which domestic violence occurs - and what is being done about it.
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Commissioner's
Comment Nick Fraser
Storyville Series Editor
Frederick Wiseman has in the course of his career documented a great range of American institutions and states of mind. In this powerful film he looks at the way police officers and social workers become implicated in the appalling phenomenon of domestic violence.
Wiseman has gone to Tampa, Florida in search of victims and perpetrators. The film is extremely difficult viewing, but it forces your attention and isn't easy to forget. Very few documentaries these days shed light on dark subjects like this, without turning into format films about the cops.
The most memorable people in Wiseman's film are overcome by the events. All of them - cops, victims and workers - would like things to be different, but there is nothing they can do about it.
