ROMEO
PRODUCTION STATUS ROMEO
is the second documentary film by Lorna Lowe Streeter. ROMEO is currently
seeking finishing funds. Your contribution is 100% tax-deductible*.(click
to donate)
ROMEO
FUNDERS
Production funding provided by:
General Motors
LEF Foundation
Color of Film Foundation
Women In Film/Video New England
ROMEO is produced in association with WGBH
(photo
credit: Dawn Greene)
SYNOPSIS ROMEO documents one man's work to rehabilitate men convicted
of domestic assaults.
The goal of ROMEO is to plainly address violence against women so these
men can seek treatment and survivors can seek validation and refuge
from abusive situations. ROMEO checks current sociocultural norms as
well as the community pulse around this destructive social issue. Looking
at the people in this [Boston] neighborhood will inform us all.
SOCIAL
ISSUE
Batterer intervention programs struggle to keep their doors open as
state funding is cut annually. Of the roughly $7 million budgeted by
the state of Massachusetts for "domestic violence services"
in 2005, only 10% is allocated to batterer intervention. Batterer intervention
may be the only hope at rehabilitation for violent men since no other
programs exist to address their behavior. Currently, there are no mandatory
programs in prison to treat men who are convicted of domestic assaults.
FILM
TREATMENT
As a group leader for one of the first batterer intervention agencies
in Boston, Antonio's responsibility is to treat men who are arrested
for domestic assaults. Contrary to agency rhetoric, Antonio refuses
to label them "batterers," his belief that as long as the
men accept the label, the women in their lives remain in danger. And
so he meets them after group for coffee and invites them to his house
for Haitian soup on New Year's Day, all agency no-nos. Antonio believes
these men need ongoing treatment much like alcoholics need AA to remain
sober, that the 40-week program isn't enough.
Aware he is treading on thin ice, Antonio knows there is a danger these
relationships will be seen as collusion. However he considers the agencies'
hands-off approach as ineffectual, graduating men from the program who
come to group drunk or fall asleep during class. Antonio believes his
only chance at persuading them to stop terrorizing their families is
to reach them on a human level. He does this in spite of their brutal
acts and for the sake of his three little girls.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
"Frankly,
I was becoming increasingly distressed over the world-wide statistics
on how many women were being beaten by the men in their lives. Almost
as equally distressing was the focus on [these] women to solve the problem.
I didn't want to go to survivors to explain their bruises, I wanted
to ask their partners why they were inflicting them, and why they (the
men) were choosing to stay in relationships that they claimed were provoking
them to rage. I'm sending up ROMEO as a test balloon to see how ready
we [as a society] are for change. "
CREW
Producer/Director: Lorna Lowe Streeter
Executive Producer: Jac Benson, II
Associate Producer: Ashaki Fenderson
D.P.: Andy McCarthy
Sound Engineer: Steve Bores
Key Grip:
Lee Holloway
Production Assistant: David Chin
*Please note only
donations made through DER are tax deductible.
ROMEO
PRODUCTION STATUS
LEF Foundation
