The very first seed from which this film grew, was an interview I conducted with Dr. Evan Stark, who is a sociologist and a domestic violence pioneer. He helped built the first battered women shelters in 1970s and has spent his life doing groundbreaking research into the root causes of domestic violence. He had written a book on the subject, called Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life, and I had become obsessed with the main premise of the book, which is th