© St. Petersburg Times, published February 9, 2002
An image of Tampa is being seen around the world, and it's not a pretty one.
At film festivals in London and Oslo, at the Venice Biennale, at the Film Forum in New York, a documentary called Domestic Violence shows a view from within at The Spring. It was made by legendary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman and is a three-hour portrait of abused women whose bloodied lives have led them, finally, to The Spring's domestic violence shelter. It was shot in eight weeks in the spring of 1998. It's on its way to showings in France and Switzerland and Chicago, and sometime next year it will air on PBS, along with Domestic Violence II, now in the editing stages, from the 110 hours of footage shot in Tampa.
"Tampa's an ugly city," a New York friend said after seeing the film.
"It happens everywhere," I said, stating the obvious about domestic violence, and of course he agreed. The film, he said, was riveting. That seems to be the consensus of film critics who've seen it.
I wish I could say I had, but it's not playing here.
Yet from stories in the Village Voice and New York Times, as well as international publications, it's clear Domestic Violence is showing the world something we in Tampa truly can be proud of.
Unlike in some of Wiseman's other films -- they all focus on social institutions like Hospital and Welfare or Titicut Follies, which was filmed in a mental institution -- this is not an indictment of The Spring.
Wiseman, who chose The Spring for the simple reason that it allowed him to film there, went in with no preconceived ideas of what the place was like. As it happens, The Spring comes across as an almost ideal domestic violence program, baldly envied in the Village Voice.
"As harrowing as the film can be, Wiseman's chosen milieu this time around provides a heartening example of where social-aid organizations can go right," writes Jessica Winter. She goes on to exult The Spring's holistic approach to healing battered women and their families, which includes individual and group therapy, legal help, housing assistance and an on-site public school. New York City -- in all its five boroughs -- has nothing like it.
Tampa police are stars, too, getting top marks for training and dedication.
One of the few people in Tampa who've actually seen the film, Jennifer Dunbar, The Spring's public relations officer, has nothing but praise.
"Riveting is a good word for it," she says, echoing my personal New York critic. She noted, as did he, that intense scenes are interspersed with calm -- my friend said "boring" -- scenes. "Otherwise," she said, "it would be unbearable."
Wiseman spent weekdays at The Spring and weekends with the cops, so he saw a woman through the transition from victim to survivor, Dunbar says.
People who were there during the filming tell her it was not the intrusion one might expect. "He was very adroit at being in the room and not having his presence felt."
It is something Wiseman is known for.
I wondered if it wasn't dangerous for women to be identified on film. Their faces are recognizable though no names are used. It seems an abuser viewing the film could become newly enraged.
"It's very brave," Dunbar said of the women who agreed to be filmed. She went on to say the women who took a chance did so, so that the rest of the world would see -- and this film leaves no doubt -- that domestic violence, which affects one in three women, is a real, true crime.
A three-hour film about domestic violence, admittedly not exactly a crowd pleaser, is not appropriate for a regular run at the Tampa Theatre, says theatre director John Bell. But The Spring wants to show it there as a special event, and he's in agreement. They should be talking next week.
Good.
Then we can see it, too.
- Sandra Thompson is a writer living in Tampa. She can be reached at tampa@sptimes.com. City Life appears on Saturday.