The all-consuming effects of domestic violence is the premise of the movie “Domestic Damages”, by award-winning writer, Synthia Williams. The stories are from real interviews with abused and battered women, but they have only met and come to know each other within the confines of this work of fiction in the form of this feature-length film. Their stories are raw but delivered in a way that will keep the audience engaged, enraged and impassioned.
I write what I know and I've always wanted to write this story. I was given the chance when I was given a grant by a local arts alliance. The grant gave me the opportunity to interview survivors of domestic violence and the families of those who lost their lives to their abusers. The stories were hard, raw and very real, yet these women refused to be mere statistics. They had fought back and were still here to tell their stories. And as it usually happens when I begin to write, the characters began to talk to me and each other.
These women who had never met in real life began to seek each other out on the paper and the result is Domestic Damages, a work of fiction based on true stories. Domestic Damages is the story of seven women whose lives are touched by domestic abuse and who come together looking for a way out. Some of the images are hard, but there are women living in this reality every day. In the end, Domestic Damages lets you take a peek behind that closed door of perceived fear and shame, putting a face on the victim that each of us can recognize because it's our very own mothers, grandmothers, wives, sisters, aunts, and girlfriends.
Synthia Williams