NORTHRIDGE : CSUN Presents Film on Domestic Abuse

The specter of domestic violence is about to descend upon Cal State Northridge.

But this time, it’s for a good reason: to help victims of such abuse in the San Fernando Valley.

Academy Award-winning producer Stacey Kabat will visit CSUN today to screen and discuss her film “Defending Our Lives,” which won the 1993 Oscar for best documentary short film.

The film, to be screened at 7 p.m. in the Northridge Center at the University Student Union, examines the cases of four women who killed their abusers and are now in prison.

Kabat’s appearance, which will include a lecture on domestic violence, is being sponsored by CSUN’s Women’s Center, which is asking the public to donate $3 to $5 to attend the screening.

Women’s Center Director Susan Maroko, who says that her mother was slain in 1962 by her stepfather, hopes Kabat’s appearance can help prevent violence in the future by making Valley residents more aware of it and teaching them how to deal with it.

“In 1962, nobody even talked about this problem,” Maroko said in a statement. “My stepfather evaded charges after killing my mother. Because of what he did, I don’t have a mother, my daughter doesn’t have a grandmother and so forth. The pain of that kind of violence doesn’t end in death. Kabat’s message is about that vicious cycle.”

Kabat, the daughter and granddaughter of battered women, is also a human rights activist who won the 1992 Reebok Human Rights Award for her work documenting domestic violence.

For the past six years, the U.S. surgeon general has listed domestic violence as the leading cause of injury to women, outweighing car accidents, rape and street robberies combined.

For more information on Kabat’s visit, contact the CSUN Women’s Center at 885-2780.