"Private Violence" premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in January, where it was also recognized with a 2014 Candescent Award.  Kit Gruelle, domestic violence advocate, 

activist, and survivor, who is featured in the film, and NCDSV's Debby Tucker, attended the Festival, as did several on the team who made the film.  Cindy Waitt, Executive Producer with the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention; Judith Helfand, Executive Producer with Chicken & Egg Pictures; Cynthia Hill, Director/Producer with Markay Media and Southern Documentary Fund; and Un Kyong Ho, Associate Producer participated.  George McClane, M.D., who appears in the film as a forensic expert on domestic violence strangulation and Rex Miller, Cinematographer, also were at most of the screenings to assist in the discussions.  Each of the screenings had an overflow crowd.  The 9-minute "One Billion Rising" documentary short premiered as well, and was shown before each viewing of "Private Violence". Kit was delighted at one of the screenings to enjoy a quick visit with Eve Ensler. 

Judith Helfand, Kit Gruelle, Cynthia Hill and Deanna Walters at the True/False Film Festival in January.

The film portrays the differing circumstances of the victims but the similarities come from looking at the conduct of the abusers.  The film challenges us to understand the gaps in the system and offers insight into how society can better support the victims and their families. Deanna Walters, who appears in the film, attended the first several screenings at Sundance, particularly helping people who'd never been exposed to this conduct understand it better.  She also accompanied the team to the True/False Film Festival in Missouri, where the film was recognized as the True Life Fund Film and shown on March 1 and 2.  (See Private Violence Is Our 2014 True Life Fund Film, January 23, 2014.)

The film has been many years in the making. Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention was the first major funder in 2006, and has stood with the project from development through post production. In 2008, Cindy elicited the support of activist, feminist, and author Gloria Steinem, who is an executive producer, along with Artemis Rising Foundation (Regina K. Scully); and Chicken & Egg Pictures (Julia Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger, Judith Helfand).  Since then, other funders, in both large and small amounts have joined in to bring us to our latest strong and powerful cut.

Thanks to Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention for reprinting portions of their January 13, 2014 article.