Vanessa Engle is the director behind a ground-breaking new documentary Love You To Death: A Year of Domestic Violence.
The BBC reports that every month, an average of seven women are killed by their spouse, partner or ex-partner. Vanessa Engle’s film sheds light on the epidemic and chronicles the stories of 86 women who died at the hands of a partner or ex-partner from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2013.
The circumstances surrounding each death vary. Some women died as a result of mental health issues prompted by domestic abuse.
Engle, where possible, examines cases and paints a harrowing but important picture of these women’s lives.
She told Vice:
“It’s been in my mind for a long time. I’ve been making films for nearly 30 years and I’ve made a lot of films about the disparity between men and women, so in a way I’ve kind of revolved around this subject matter a lot. I’ve always known the statistic that two women a week are killed as a result of domestic violence, but it just suddenly dawned on me that I could do a year of deaths.
Domestic violence is such a difficult and frankly off-putting subject for people – even those affected by it – but doing a year of deaths is a proposition which really sparks people’s imaginations. There’s something so powerful about 86 women in one year. It’s such a lot of women, but it’s not so many that it’s beyond your imagination.”
Love You To Death: A Year Of Domestic Violence is available on the iPlayer now.
Image via BBC.
