Mending Spirits

Filmmaker Monica A. Plunkett's absorbing documentary about domestic violence focuses on the healing journeys of three women—Jean, Karen, and Constance—told through extensive personal interviews. Mending Spirits traces early patterns of abusive behavior followed by escalation within one or more relationships over time, looks at the difficulties involved in getting out of these situations, and concludes with a final period of acceptance and self-discovery. Interwoven throughout these compelling and forthright stories (one survivor descended into drug abuse; another felt abandoned by her church and community) is lively event footage (from a Rally for Women's Lives; a National Display of the Clothesline Project, and a U.N. conference on Women in China) that includes inspiring comments from attendees, as well as artwork, poetry, and journal entries from survivors read in voiceover narration by women of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. While these latter elements are accompanied by original dramatic music and occasionally none-too-subtle imagery (a bridal veil flying in the wind; a hand slamming a door shut; the abandonment of a heart-shaped necklace), a few somewhat overwrought touches do not seriously diminish the overwhelming sense here of fostering female self-empowerment through a community of survivors. Definitely recommended. Aud: C, P. (A. Cantú)