Repetition Compulsion
A Film by Ellie Lee

Repetition Compulsion is an animated documentary which explores how prolonged childhood abuse in the lives of homeless women has set the stage for further victimization on the streets.

Many homeless women develop intimate yet ultimately destructive relationships with homeless men for companionship and protection. Weaving dark and violent charcoal imagery with actual interviews of homeless women, the film describes the crippling feelings of worthlessness, depression, powerlessness, paranoia and terror as the women become increasingly more dependent on the homeless men who support yet continue to hurt them.

Born directly out of the filmmaker's experience of working for four years with homeless women who had suffered long, unaddressed histories of physical and sexual abuse, Repetition Compulsion gives voice and vision to these women's stories of abuse and survival.

However, Lee did not want to expose her subjects or exacerbate their pain. Rather than depict their struggles explicitly, Lee chose to weave their words over animated charcoal images she created. Lee explains, "Through animation, violent scenarios can be transformed into an angry flurry of charcoal lines; it allows me to depict their hardships with a universality that does not exploit the lives of the particular women upon whom this film is based."

7 minutes
© 1997
Purchase $150 DVD
Order No. QA-540

Reviews
"Making full use of animation's power to convey a nightmare, REPETITION COMPULSION burrows intimately into the world of battered women. Thoroughly deserving of the grand prize, Lee's film is more enlightening in its seven minutes than a stack of documentaries or dramas."—The Boston Globe

Awards & Conference Screenings
Winner, Best of Festival, 1998 New England Film and Video Festival
Winner, Second Place, 1998 Black Maria Film and Video Festival
1998 Berlin International Film Festival
1998 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival

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