ImagineNATIVE 2010: Lani's Story

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, which runs Oct. 20-24 in Toronto, is an international event showcasing works by aboriginal peoples in the realms of film, video, radio and new media. Samantha Anderson is keeping a blog for CBCNews.ca on this year's festival. Follow Samantha's tweets during #imgN8V @samleeanderson.


Lani Brennan, the subject of the domestic abuse documentary Lani's Story, speaks to the audience as directors Cara Mumford and Genevieve Grieves look on. (Samantha Anderson/CBC)

After the North American premiere of the film Lani's Story at ImagineNATIVE, audience members crowded around its subject, Lani Brennan, to tell her how moved they were.

Directed by Genevieve Grieves, Lani's Story is a documentary about Brennan's struggles with her abusive ex-partner and her courage in facing the Australian justice system. The situations she experienced were gruesome and inhumane. Brennan's account of what went on over the course of two years - starting at age 18 - painted a grim picture for the audience. This included being raped and strangled nearly to death with an electrical cord.

Sometimes, she was waiting to die; other times, Brennan says in the film, she was praying for the sun to come up. "It was like I was on a Mute button the whole time I was with him," she says. What compounded the situation was the inaction of the police. Brennan was at a point where she felt if the authorities wouldn't apprehend her tormentor, she would. For four years, there wasn't even a warrant for his arrest.

Brennan did not have faith in the justice system. While she acknowledges that victims of domestic violence can be found all around the world, she claims that the police would have intervened sooner if she had been white. Brennan, who has a new partner, as well five young daughters, had nightmares for six years after being rescued from her private hell. (Her ex-partner was eventually found guilty of the charges laid against him.)

"I know I'm worthwhile today," Brennan says.

The film has been well received in Australia, where Brennan has become a voice of hope for women in brutal circumstances. The doc has recently received two United Nations Media Peace Awards.

People in the theatre were emotional afterwards, as the bill also included two other films: December 6, a documentary look at the Montreal Massacre, and Open Season: On the Rights of Native Women, Raquel Chapa's exploration of sex-abuse survivors on Native American reservations.

--Samantha Anderson