Online Film Response

Jaylynn Lyons

After the death of Mia Zapata who was raped and murdered, a group of women who had known her used their anger and rage to create “Home Alive.” “Home Alive” was an organization that offered self-defense classes and was open to everyone. The definition in the documentary is “Home alive is a collective of performance and visual artists hell-bent on fighting all forms of violence including (rape, domestic abuse, gay/lesbian bashing, racism and all other forms of oppression).”Their goal was to teach themselves and others’ techniques to protect themselves from any sort of violence. It was to encourage personal responsibility in dealing with confrontations in a small city with a predator on the loose. This group of women were careful on how they defined self-defense. They made it clear that it wasn’t all physical and that it set boundaries in people’s everyday lives. The film used the example of walking someone to their car as a way to use self-defense. The women explained how not everyone loved the idea of “Home Alive.” Some thought that it was making Mia a poster child, however, their only goal was to educate and make awareness of violence so that what happened to Mia would not happen again. They also encountered internal issues including disagreements. They wanted to create an accessible way for women to feel empowered and confident. The motive of “Home Alive” was to bring empowerment to women and to embrace your own strength. It gave women permission to have a voice and fight back. If I was able to create my own documentary, I would make it about racial discrimination. Although this was a greater issue in American history, it is still very prevalent today.