Story by: Elaine Houston & WNYT Staff
October is “National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.” According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, nearly 20 people per minute on average are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States.
A local woman is pulling back the curtain on her own abuse, hoping to prevent others from going through what she endured.
In her book, “The Mask behind the Mask,” Shana Gourdine’s goal is for those who have experienced domestic violence to examine the many masks they’ve worn as they’ve tried to survive the ordeals they’ve been through.
In her new companion piece, a film called “Through Their Eyes: The Mask Behind The Mask,” she goes even deeper and allows victims to do something many of them haven’t – be transparent about what happened to them at the hands of their abuser.
The idea for a film she says began when she heard the numbers of abuse victims were going up during this pandemic.
Although domestic violence victims may have felt afraid to share their stories in the past, Gourdine says that’s changing. She used social media for her project and got a pretty immediate response.
Learn more about the film by watching the video of Elaine Houston’s story.
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