From AA Fiction to Domestic Violence Reality

Once upon a time, New York filmmaker Peter Cohn produced, co-wrote and directed the 1996 Alcoholics Anonymous themed drama Drunks starring Richard Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Dianne Wiest and the late Spalding Gray. All these years later, he is back with a documentary about another, equally pervasive sociologial scourge, domestic violence; titled Power and Control, the two-years-in-the-making project premieres this afternoon at the 2010 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival.


While detailing stories of women and children fleeing violent households, Power and Control also sings the praises of Duluth, MN natives Ellen Pence and Michael Paymar, whose pioneering Domestic Abuse Intervention Project went on to be adopted in all 50 states and 17 other countries. Just a few weeks ago, Pence launched a new initiative called The Blue Print, and both she and Paymar will be on hand today alongside Cohn for the premiere and an after-screening informal getogether.

[Power and Control]