KillJoy

Though positive change is happening, the global tragedy of family homicide is not abating. Australia has one of the highest rates amongst all developed nations. On average, one woman a week is killed by her former or current partner. More than two- thirds (68%) of mothers who have had children in their care when they experienced violence from their previous partner said their children had seen or heard the violence. When a parent is killed by their partner, their children experience multiple losses. Long-term consequences for children include mental health issues, poor educational outcomes and high risk of further victimisation and violence perpetration. Intimate partner violence is the biggest health risk for women aged 25-44.
Economically speaking, the combined health, administrative and social welfare costs of violence against women have been estimated to be $21.7 billion a year.

We hope to draw attention to the devastating impacts of family homicide on children over the course of their lives. The fact that the primary victim is dead, and the secondary victims are often children, coupled with a lack of understanding within mainstream media means that the narrative around family homicide obsesses about the perpetrators rather than the victims’ and survivors’ stories. Kathryn’s remarkable story will shift the narrative to one that humanises and privileges the victims.

With our partners, we aim to provide a valuable personal account to the ongoing family law debate within Australia. We aim to highlight the experiences of children as a means to lobby the family law courts to provide more checks and balances, understanding the rights of children independently of parental rights.
The story KillJoy tells can ensure that an alternative narrative exists, and that children bereaved by family homicide feel their experiences are valid despite their fragmented memory, and that women like Carolyn who die from their intimate partners weekly are remembered as women and mothers first and victims second.

We are partnering with the University of Melbourne to develop ways children’s experience of family violence can inform the family violence and criminal justice sectors. We are working with the family violence sector to ensure KillJoy builds upon national strategy in the prevention of violence against women and children.

We want to fuel a groundswell of empathy, via festival cinemas, sectoral engagement and grassroots community screenings, that will translate into support for a nationwide support for children of family violence and homicide. Kathryn’s story is a powerful indictment of the law’s failure to protect children, and so we hope this film will be an asset in raising awareness in the complex nature of governing perpetrators’ access to their children and incorporating what is in the best interests of the child.