Joy Hunt     The Piano It Ain't Over the past two months, the Women's Center has sponsored a weekly film series entitled Women Fight Back on Film. These films have provided an occasion for reflection on women who face violence and choose to stand against it. In these movies, the human ability to emerge from physical or psychological prison has proven to be an empowering image of hope and possibility. A recent film, Once Were Warriors, begins with an epic shot of a fluid and healthy landscape. Gradually, the camera moves outward and one sees that this scene is only a facade. The landscape is actually a backdrop for a billboard advertising EzPower razor blades. Reality is not a pristine landscape, but a noisy street corner cluttered with construction workers, graffiti, pollution, and pulsating rock music. From this chaos, a woman emerges carrying groceries; she walks with a purpose, chin up, facing forward. Beth Heke heads home to a working-class family of five children and one of the harshest scenes of domestic violence imaginable. According to her husband, this woman has one huge problem ‹ she just cannot seem to keep her mouth shut. Her family life is a cycle of painful disappointments, drunken parties, and nauseating fights. It is a life of broken dreams, broken bodies, and broken hearts. One by one, the Heke children are forced to seek security and refuge outside of the home. Something must give ‹ Beth decides she must stand against her spouse because she can accept no more humiliations, disappointments, or lost children. Once Were Warriors also explores domestic violence in the larger context of colonialism. The Hekes are descendants of the Maori people of New Zealand, and for Beth and her children, a part of reclaiming their lives after so much suffering and loss is returning home to the Maori. Similarly, Jake, the abusive husband and father, has lost his cultural and spiritual roots, and in this process, he has become a slave to alcohol and violence. Without a greater sense of community or purpose, Jake seeks EzPower through unflinching brutality. He does not save violence for his family. Instead, he turns to violence anytime an issue arises requiring more than superficial communication. Jake does not have a human range of emotions; he has only rage and periods of repressed rage waiting to surface. This film depicts the psychology of domestic violence in a way that is painfully real. It shows how violence in the family takes away faith and trust in the world by destroying the most basic social unit. Once Were Warriors illustrates the ways in which domestic violence violates personhood on the deepest levels, while exploring the ability of the human spirit to survive, resist, and overcome even the coldest winters. As Beth Heke and her children rediscover their inner strength and cultural roots, this film marks the return of the woman warrior. Over the past two months the Women Fight Back on Film series has been a forum for extraordinarily provoking dialogue. Claire Kaplan and the Women's Center deserve our thanks for bringing this dynamic programming to the university community. Perhaps more programming like this will signal the rebirth of the woman warrior in our community.

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