Released on: September 5, 2008, 8:52 am

Press Release Author: Pius Uzamere, v.p of distribution at Equilibrium Pictures

Industry: Entertainment

Press Release Summary: Forced Absence, a Film About Child Custody, Support,
Visitation, and Corrupt Family Courts Opens In Boston on September 5th, 2008

Press Release Body:



Forced Absence, a Film About Child Custody, Support, Visitation, and Corrupt Family
Courts Opens In Boston on September 5th, 2008

Boston, MA -- Forced Absence, the long awaited documentary feature film on child
custody and visitation battles, false allegations of abuse, corrupt judges, and
exorbitant child support arrives at theaters starting with a premiere in Boston on
Friday, September 5, 2008 at The Regent Theatre followed by a Q&A session. Ten
years in the making, the film investigates the effects of marital acrimony on
parents and children against the backdrop of a corrupt family court system through
hard-hitting interviews with victims, lawyers, and mental health professionals.
“Forced Absence makes a major contribution to getting these issues into the public
consciousness, wrapping a message of dual parenthood with poignant real-life
accounts and an entertaining storyline,” said the film’s director, P.A. Uzamere in
an interview Wednesday.

“While the issues in this film affect over 60 million Americans and millions more
across the world,” Uzamere continued, “Many people are just now learning the extent
to which divorce and custody have become private, corrupt industries dominated by
vindictiveness and greed rather than by a propensity to mete out justice and protect
children.” According to experts, these proceedings can drag on for years, sometimes
even the better part of a decade while children watch helplessly as their parents
battle, often times leaving one parent in poverty, alienated from their own children
with a reputation ruined by false allegations from the ex-spouse.

Some of the most damaging financial effects to parents come from the law in most
states forcing non-custodial parents to singlehandedly maintain the pre-divorce
standard of living for their ex-spouse’s household, leaving no money for the
non-custodial parent to live on. Due to this law, for example, one of the victims
interviewed in Forced Absence had to go without electricity in his house for nearly
a year so he could afford to pay the exorbitant (and ultimately misused) child
support levies that financed the relatively lavish lifestyle his ex-wife enjoyed
before they divorced.

In addition to the effects of the corrupt family court system on parents, the damage
done to children caught up in the mix is profound. Children of bitter divorces have
higher incidences of mental health issues, higher high school dropout rates, and a
higher likelihood of strife in their own marriages according to national statistics.
The effects of preventing children from having access to both parents is damning,
and this phenomenon is explored in-depth in Forced Absence.

In Mid-August at the National Civil Rights Event March on Washington for parents
promoting family rights, the producers of Forced Absence kicked off an outreach
effort to build a coalition of citizens and groups to support the film and use it to
propagate their message. The Boston premiere begins a platform release supported by
a city-by-city groundswell of grassroots support for the film and its message.
Mothers, daughters, fathers, and sons are uniting to support the mission of keeping
both parents involved in their children’s lives wherever possible -- a message we
can all believe in.

Equilibrium Pictures is a distributor of independent and foreign films within the
United States, specializing in family films. In addition to Forced Absence,
Equilibrium has several upcoming films in post-production including “Choices,” a
documentary detailing the struggles of five young women as they attempt to make the
right life and relationship choices not only for their own benefit, but for that of
their children.

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Web Site: http://www.forcedabsencemovie.com

Contact Details: Pius Uzamere, VP of Distribution at Equilibrium Pictures
tiger@eecfilms.com
917.508.6450
Forced Absence Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3J7aqjZ7p0
http://www.forcedabsencemovie.com

Showtimes and Directions available at:
http://www.regenttheatre.com/events/fa.htm