For over twenty years, Garland Waller has been a producer, writer, and director of award-winning nationally and locally syndicated television and film programs. But she didn’t know what she was getting herself into when Diane Hofheimer, a close childhood friend, succeeded in convincing her to make SMALL JUSTICE: LITTLE JUSTICE IN AMERICA’S FAMILY COURTS (2002), which exposes injustices dealt to women and their children in the family court system.
The two women grew up together in Virginia, where Hofheimer and her husband, Charles, form a paralegal-attorney team who represent women in divorce and custody cases. Despite their close relationship, Waller initially had trouble believing her friend when she described a phenomenon happening in the Virginia family courts: many of her clients were losing custody of their children to ex-husbands who had battered them and sexually abused their children.
Disturbed by Hofheimer’s video footage of a three-year-old girl screaming not to return to Daddy’s, Waller decided to do some research on her own. She discovered that the problem described by her friend was not unique to Virginia. Studies show that male batterers who seek custody of their children succeed in getting it in 70% of contested cases. In addition, approximately 50% of men who abuse their female partners also abuse their children. Even so, child sexual abuse within the family is a topic that many journalists are reluctant to cover. Emotionally distraught mothers are perceived by reporters as unreliable sources; accused fathers, not surprisingly, don’t corroborate the mother’s story, making reporting one-sided; the legal issues are complex, and reporters and editors are hesitant to “take on the courts.” And finally, the topic is, well, yucky-no one likes hearing about incest and the rape of children. Had Waller not had a personal connection to Hofheimer, “as a journalist, I’m not sure that I would have taken on the story,” she said.
From the perspective of Hofheimer, referred to by a client as “the Erin Brockovitch of the family courts,” Small Justice follows three women who are in various stages of their legal battles to regain custody of their children. Though Waller mainly covers the women’s side of the story, their accounts are supported by psychologists, lawyers, one judge, and other experts. We meet Kathy, whose daughter Suzi has been sexually abused, as revealed by her therapist; Suzi identified her father as the abuser. When the father got custody of Suzi, mother and daughter went underground. After their discovery, Kathy was acquitted of kidnapping charges, as the jury believed she was acting in the best interest of her child. But the family court gave full custody to her ex-husband. We also hear from Elaine, who was counseled into leaving her abusive husband and let him have custody of their four children to avoid further threats. One day she discovered two of the children having oral sex in the backseat of the car. Despite verbal disclosures of their father’s abuse from the children, the judge awarded him full custody. Finally, there is Pam. Beaten by her husband Martin only one day into their marriage, Pam maintains custody of her daughter, who says on camera that her father molested her. However, Martin, a registered sexual perpetrator in New York, won custody of their two boys, even though they disclosed sexual and physical abuse by their father and stepmother.
Small Justice is not Waller’s first social-issue oriented piece. She began making documentaries for WBZ in the 1980s, when producers called Boston “the Camelot of local television.” “Local programming was a jewel in Boston,” said Waller. “Local television stations here were nationally known. . . That was when a lot of us got a chance to do real shows.” In 1985 she made her first documentary, “Rape: An Act of Hate.” Waller’s program was among the first to uphold the notion that “no means no” and won every award the station submitted it for. Other documentaries she made for WBZ’s Special Projects Department included “Wild In The Streets: Boston’s Car Wars”; “A Family Secret: Adult Children of Alcoholics”; and “Kids and Drugs: A High Price to Pay.”
In the early ‘90s, WBZ closed its Special Projects Department, and she began to work as a freelance producer of documentaries and children’s programs, her original area of focus. Then in 1995 she got a call from Boston University, asking if she would be interested in teaching. She has been an assistant professor in the College of Communications ever since. There she began Hothouse Productions, a course that operates as a production company in which students produce client-driven projects. Indeed, Boston University’s resources were one of the reasons she could make SMALL JUSTICE independently (in addition to the financial support of friends and family). She had access to BU equipment as well as students, who worked on the film for little or no pay. “It wouldn’t have gotten made without BU students,” Waller said.
Upon the film’s completion in 2001, Waller was unwittingly placed in the role of spokesperson and advocate. SMALL JUSTICE has garnered praise in the film world-it was awarded Best Social Documentary at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival and was a winner at the Key West Indie Fest. But it has made particular impact among the nonprofits that serve and advocate on behalf of women and children who have experienced violence and abuse. SMALL JUSTICE has been shown at the last two conferences of the National Organization for Women, and many groups, including California NOW, Justice for Children, and the Leadership Council for Mental Health, Justice, and the Media, use it for training and education. Recently, the film received an Award for Media Excellence from the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Institute. The film’s companion website, www.smalljustice.com, has become a hub for advocates, mothers, and concerned citizens working to turn around the issue, and Waller receives emails regularly from women who want to share their story.
According to Waller, SMALL JUSTICE is still the only documentary on the topic of family court and justice. But she still hasn’t achieved her goal of getting it aired on television. And though the film has become a critical tool for advocates, many of them feel that it needs to be shown to a wider public audience in order to expose injustices in the system and hold the family court system accountable. Dr. Mo Therese Hannah, a professor of clinical psychology at Sienna College who organized last month’s Battered Mothers Custody Conference in Albany, NY, says that lack of major media interest in the issue is part of the problem. “No one is minding the store,” she said, in part because the media isn’t investigating and reporting on issues such as gender bias and denial of due process in family courts.
Waller is one journalist who won’t back away from the issue. Her next project will be about young men and women who were raised by batterers and will show how survivors of child sexual abuse cope as adults. “I feel that I have been so blessed in my lifetime. I had a wonderful childhood and loving parents. I have a wonderful daughter and a great job, and I am engaged to a wonderful man [CN8 “Nitebeat” host Barry Nolan]. . . . If I can do one thing to help someone who has been beaten black and blue” - or worse, as her film shows - “I will do it,” says Waller. Using the dogged skill of a journalist and an advocate’s passion, she is helping to expose the magnitude of violence happening in America’s families which, though overwhelming, must be known if anything is to be done about it.
Casa Myrna Vasquez, Inc. will present a screening of Small Justice at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA, in March. For more information, contact (617) 521-0100.