And So I Stayed; How The Legal System Gets Domestic Violence Wrong at Fogartyville in Sarasota

To bring attention to Domestic Violence Awareness Month, WSLR and SPARCC will screen the award-winning documentary AND SO I STAYED about survivors of abuse fighting for their lives and spending years behind bars. This is the story of how the legal system gets domestic violence wrong. It is a moving portrait of Kim, Tanisha, and Nikki, three survivors whose strikingly similar stories are separated by over 30 years. None of them were believed, and each of them was criminalized for fighting back. On October 26 at 7pm, WSLR+Fogartyville will host an exclusive in-person screening of the documentary followed by a panel discussion with our non-profit partner SPARCC (Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center). Film Directors Natalie Pattillo and Daniel Nelson will join us by Zoom for a discussion following the film.

Kira Ferberder, a SPARCC educator, Kathryn Greenberg, a mental health counselor who works with women in jail, and Lorrie Simmons, survivor and founder of Victory Over Violence, will also take part in the post-screening discussion.

These women paid a steep price with long prison sentences, lost time with loved ones, and painful memories. Activist and formerly incarcerated survivor Kim Dadou Brown, who met her wife while incarcerated, is a driving force in the passage of New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA), a new law meant to prevent survivors from receiving harsh prison sentences for their acts of survival. Nikki Addimando, a mother of two young children, suffered the consequences when a judge didn’t follow the law’s guidelines. Tanisha Davis, a single mother who was ripped away from her son in 2013, is hopeful the new law is her way out of a harsh prison sentence. This film is made for and by survivors. For them/us to feel heard, seen, and believed.

SPARCC (Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center) is the nonprofit partner for the screening of this film. They will have representatives present to talk about their local programming and also address the issues raised in the film. Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center, Inc. (SPARCC) was formed as a non-profit agency in 1979. SPARCC is the only state-certified center for domestic violence and sexual assault services for Sarasota and DeSoto Counties. All of SPARCC’s services are free and confidential.

In addition to serving survivors of domestic and sexual violence, SPARCC is actively engaged in promoting social change through community awareness and education in an effort to prevent violence in the future.

And So I Stayed will be presented online and attendees can view it on demand any time between October 24-27th. Admission to the screening is $10 per person which includes a local panel discussion following the film. Tickets are available HERE.

This event is made possible through the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, a South Arts program. Since its inception in 1975, Southern Circuit has brought some of the best independent filmmakers and their films from around the country to communities throughout the South. The program is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Interviews and photographs

Interviews with the filmmakers and photographs for publication are available upon request.

About WSLR+Fogartyville 

WSLR+Fogartyville is a collective, made up of Sarasota’s Low Power Community Radio Station WSLR 96.5 and the Fogartyville Community Media and Arts Center. WSLR+Fogartyville is a center for creative expression and community engagement that amplifies the voices of our diverse community and promotes peace, sustainability, democracy, and economic and social justice.

About South Arts

South Arts advances Southern vitality through the arts. The nonprofit regional arts organization was founded in 1975 to build on the South’s unique heritage and enhance the public value of the arts. South Arts’ work responds to the arts environment and cultural trends with a regional perspective. South Arts offers an annual portfolio of activities designed to support the success of artists and arts providers in the South, address the needs of Southern communities through impactful arts-based programs, and celebrate the excellence, innovation, value and power of the arts of the South. For more information, visit www.southarts.org.

Photo from Fogartyville