Home Truth
US | 2018 | 72 minutes | Color | DVD | English | Order No. 191233 |
In the wake of her daughters’ murders, a mother takes a historic lawsuit about police non-enforcement of restraining orders to the Supreme Court.
SYNOPSIS
In 1999, Colorado mother Jessica Gonzales experienced every parent’s worst nightmare when her three young daughters were killed after being abducted by their father in violation of a domestic violence restraining order. Devastated, Jessica sued her local police department for failing to adequately enforce her restraining order despite her repeated calls for help that night. Determined to make sure her daughters did not die in vain, Jessica pursued her case to the US Supreme Court and an international human rights tribunal, seeking to strengthen legal rights for domestic violence victims. When her legal journey finally achieved widespread national change and she became an acclaimed activist, Jessica struggled to put her life and relationships back together.
PRESS
"A deeply moving portrait of a woman determined not to let her children's deaths be in vain. Jessica became an important voice for domestic violence sufferers...her inspiring indomitability and courage make HOME TRUTH essential viewing."
"At a time when domestic violence shows no signs of abating, and a nominee for the Supreme Court is being considered, this is essential viewing."
"Home Truth is a powerful and devastating look at domestic violence and the importance of restraining orders. A genuine highlight of this year’s HRWFF."
SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS
- Human Rights Watch Film Festival
- Denver Film Festival
- Heartland Film Festival
- Raindance Film Festival
- Fairhope Film Festival
- Omaha Film Festival
- Festival of Tolerance
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
April Hayes is a Los Angeles-based documentary director, producer, and creative director. As a producer, her recent projects include the Emmy and Sundance Film Festival award winning feature documentary The Sentence, an intimate film about the longterm impacts of mass incarceration and mandatory minimum sentencing on one family; Rolling Thunder: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, which premiered on Netflix in 2019; and LYNCHING IN AMERICA, a multimedia documentary project with the Equal Justice Initiative on the history of lynching and racial terror in America that has won a Bronze Lion award at Cannes, two Webby awards, and went on to become a traveling exhibit at Brooklyn Museum and EJI’s The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. Recent directing projects include a short documentary as part of Google’s #ShowUp campaign documenting the current state of Pride movements around the country, "Respond & Rebuild," about Occupy’s post-Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in the Rockaways that was featured on Democracy Now! in 2013, and directed with Katia Maguire, God is a Garden (2015), about an order of environmentalist nuns. April also works as an archivist, most notably managing Bob Dylan’s media archive for seven years, and working as an in-house producer for his film and video projects. She is currently working at Google's Brand Studio, where she develops documentary and nonfiction storytelling projects. (10/19)
Katia Maguire is an Emmy-nominated documentary producer and director. Most recently she produced FRIDA, the 2024 Sundance Film Festival award-winning documentary about Frida Kahlo. She was post-production supervisor on the hit documentary RBG, about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that was nominated for the 2019 Academy Awards. Her longtime association with public television includes co-directing the PBS film Home Truth, a ten-year longitudinal film about a domestic violence survivor and human rights advocate. She also produced Kingdom of Shadows (PBS/POV) and The Graduates/Los Graduados (PBS/Independent Lens) and was a senior associate producer on PBS' Women, War & Peace. Katia worked with veteran journalist Bill Moyers on several of his weekly PBS public affairs television programs. She was an associate producer on Quest for Honor, a documentary about violence against women in Iraq that was short-listed for the 2010 Academy Awards. Over the course of her almost twenty year career she has been selected for producing fellowships with Impact Partners, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Union Docs, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers, and the Flaherty Film Seminar. She lives in New Jersey and is a mom of two. (7/31)
Subject Areas
RELATED LINKS
MATERIALS