|
|
THE DADS WHO FOUGHT BACK is the story about two men's struggle to get shared custody of their children in a Canadian court system that many feel has evolved a deep and persistent gender bias in favour of mothers. Jeff is a thirty-three year old father of two. He hangs on for dear life, desperate not to be yet another Sunday father, cramming a lifetime into a two-hour game of catch and an ice-cream cone in the park every weekend. He's going to court trying to get something that not all divorced fathers in Canada get—a life with his children equal to that of the mother. Robert is also a father of two. He sees his daughter for 27 hours each weekend. Trying not to have the same sad result, he's seeking sole custody of his youngest daughter, born from another relationship. It's an uphill battle, as few men get sole custody of their children in Canada. Plus, he's fighting allegations of sexual and physical abuse, allegations that have been proven to be false. They are two average guys who won't give up. The film follows their journey, while film critically examining the court system, the lawyers who represent fathers, and the men and women in Canada and the United States who are advocating for change. These professionals include Senator Anne Cools, who has been a passionate advocate for fathers since 1998, when the joint Senate-Commons Committee on child custody and access published For The Sake Of The Children, Dr. Warren Farrell, author of Father And Child Reunion, and Carey Linde, a fathers' advocate and lawyer for over 15 years. The film also focuses on Fathers For Justice (F4J) who use acts of civil disobedience such as scaling bridges and cranes to draw attention to the plight of fathers. But ultimately, THE DADS WHO FOUGHT BACK is the heartfelt story of two passionate fathers who refuse to take a back seat and are willing to put everything at stake to have a relationship with their kids.
Premiere: Saturday, October 14 2006, 7pm on Global Television Wednesday, November 8 2006, 10pm on Global Television NEXT: Saturday, March 3 2007, 7pm on Global Television
Rainshadow Media Ltd, a rights holding production company, was formed in 2001. Its principals are Andrew Koster and Brenda Kovitz. The company develops drama, documentary and factual entertainment for Canadian and international markets in both documentary and lifestyle formats. In addition, Rainshadow provides production management and executive producing services to established and emerging filmmakers. Rainshadow films & television programmes have strong global reach. Koster and Kovitz have produced and/or sold to such networks as the CBC, Lifetime, Global, Discovery Canada, the Travel Channel, the Life Network, Discovery Latin America, Globosat, Canal Vie, the W Network, BBC, Fox Family, YTV, and Showtime. The offices of Rainshadow Media are located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and can be found online at www.rainshadowmedia.com.
THEO J. BOERE Theo was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands and moved to Montreal, PQ when he was five. He attended Dawson College and McGill University there, and studied psychology. He started his first business, a window cleaning business, at age 19. In his early twenties, Theo moved to Victoria, BC and worked as a social worker there, mostly working with juveniles. Theo was married in 1989 and after five years of marriage and two children, was separated. The first three years of separation were relatively amicable, but things got ugly when there was a consistent denial of access to his children. He moved back to Vancouver Island to be closer to his children. Throughout this extremely challenging time, Theo realized there were few or no resources for men and fathers, and with a few other men, Theo started a support group specifically for men going through separation and divorce. Out of this grew the Nanaimo Men’s Resource Centre of which Theo is currently the Executive Director. The centre has also produced a 32-minute video on Parental Alienation Awareness. For a full list of their programmes, click here Theo is also the president of the Parents Coalition of British Columbia and has a consulting company dealing with start-ups, personnel management, marketing, and finances. Theo currently resides in Nanaimo, B.C.
ANNE COOLS Anne Clare Cools is a senator from Ontario. Summoned to the Senate by His Excellency Governor General Edward Schreyer on the recommendation of the Right Honourable Pierre Trudeau in January 1984, her appointment to the Senate continued a long career of community organization and social services in the field of family conflict and family violence. She is the first black person appointed to the Senate of Canada and the first black female senator in North America. Senator Cools has been an innovator and leader in the creation of social services to help battered women, families in crisis and families troubled by domestic violence. In 1974, she founded one of the first battered women's shelters in Canada, Women in Transition Inc., serving as its Executive Director. Senator Cools has led the debate for shared parenting and equal rights for both parents and grandparents following divorce and separation. She was a member of the Special Joint Senate-Commons Committee on Child Custody & Access, whose report “For the Sake of the Children” recommended shared parenting. Her work in the Senate on divorce was pivotal in the creation of this committee. Senator Cools is married and is a member of the Anglican Church. Her interests include classical music, piano, gardening and her dog Tara.
DR. WARREN FARRELL Ph.D. Dr. Farrell began his research on gender issues in the 1960s, publishing his first book, The Liberated Man in 1974. In the 1980s, his award-winning national best-seller, Why Men Are The Way They Are, was called "the most important book ever written about love, sex, and intimacy by The New York Post. In 2001, Dr. Farrell’s book Father And Child Reunion was published, culminating 13 years of research on the conditions under which children of divorce are most likely to be raised successfully. Dr. Farrell’s books are published in over 50 countries in 13 languages. He has founded over 600 men’s and women’s groups and his workshops have been attended by more than 200,000 people. He has appeared on over 1,000 TV and radio shows and been frequently interviewed by Oprah, Barbara Walters, Larry King and Peter Jennings. He has been featured repeatedly on 20/20 and in The New York Times. He is the recipient of many honours including being recognized by President Lyndon Johnson as one of the outstanding young US educators of the time; being chosen as one of the world’s “2000 Outstanding Scholars of the 20th Century” (International Biographic Centre of London); and selected as one of the world’s “Top 100 Thought Leaders” (Financial Times). His most recent book, Why Men Earn More, was chosen as one of the four great career book books to be read in 2006. Dr. Farrell lives in Mill Valley, California with his wife and their two daughters.
DR. EDWARD KRUK MSW Ph.D. Dr. Kruk, MSW, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work, University of British Columbia, specializing in child and family policy, and also practices as a family mediator in Vancouver and Denman Island, B.C. His recent research projects have focused on fathers and divorce, and women and addiction. He has over 30 years of clinical and community work experience, 28 as a professional social worker. He received his BA and MSW degrees from the University of Toronto, and his doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, where he studied as a National Welfare Fellow. His professional experience also includes a faculty appointment with the University of Calgary Faculty of Social Work, family practice with Catholic Family Services in Calgary, medical social work practice with the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh, school social work with the Metro Separate School Board in Toronto, and child protection work with the Metro and Catholic Children's Aid Societies in Toronto. He is author of Divorce and Disengagement: Patterns of Fatherhood Within and Beyond Marriage (Fernwood, 1993), and Mediation and Conflict Resolution in Social Work and the Human Services (Nelson-Hall, 1997), and has published widely in a variety of academic and professional journals. He is working on a new book on the metaphysical foundations of social work. Edward is a single parent of two boys, Stephan, 23, and Liam, 10.
CAREY LINDE Carey Linde has been practicing law for 32 years. In that time he has raised three children to adulthood as a single father parent, which explains why he launched himself into the fight to secure shared parenting legislation in Canada. He is a member of Vancouver M.E.N. and a past member of Seattle M.E.N. and a participant in a men's group. He obtained his B.A. in psychology and law degree from the University of British Columbia. He has been trained and acted as a family mediator and is a strong advocate for collaboration and consensus over conflict. But he won't avoid the just fight when reason fails. He is a member of the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia and a past member of the American Trial Lawyers Association. The central focus of his legal practice is in helping kids see more of their fathers (or moms if dad somehow has sole custody and is as much of a control freak as some mothers.) In his words: "The men's and father's movements, supported by lots of very good women, deserve credit for the change in the courts in the past few years towards recognizing the importance of fathers. There remains an enormous way to go before we approach anything remotely resembling actual equality in the roles of both separated parents, to say nothing of equality in co-parenting and rotating time with children."
DR. REENA SOMMER Ph.D. Dr. Sommer received her doctoral degree in psychology, family studies and sociology from the University of Manitoba in 1994. She is internationally known for her work in domestic abuse. In 1992, Dr. Sommer spoke out against "Zero Tolerance" policies of domestic abuse; policies that are now being reviewed for the flaws that she had identified. Dr. Sommer has written extensively on issues relating to violence — in the family, addictions and codependency. In May 1998, Dr. Sommer was invited to testify before the Joint Senate-House of Commons Committee on custody and access. More recently in April 2002, she was invited once again by the Canadian government to participate in a panel of experts from Canada and the United States to revisit the findings of the Joint Senate-House of Commons Committee. Dr. Sommer helps divorcing couples explore options to restructure their lives. She provides expert testimony in court on the issue of parental alienation syndrome as well as more general issues relating to custody evaluations including child development, family functioning domestic abuse.
|
|||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
