NEWCASTLE charity Got Your Back Sista (GYBS) will tonight launch its short film, which aims to raise awareness about the impact domestic violence has on children.
GYBS founder and chief executive Melissa Histon said the 11-minute film Silenced would be launched at the Civic Theatre on Friday, before it is uploaded to the GYBS Facebook page and YouTube channel on Saturday.
"We encourage people to jump online and to take the time to have a look, it's a really important issue and something we really need to educate the community around," she said.
"Ideally we want as many people as possible to see it but also for services and organisations to contact us if they'd like to use it as an educational resource."
The film is told from the perspective of siblings Kasey and Liam, played by Frankie Leach and Jude Schillert, and is based on interviews with and accounts of several women who witnessed violence as children and said it changed the course of their lives, even leading some to abusive relationships as adults.
"Often even if domestic violence isn't directed towards them, even just being a part of that household and witnessing it still has the same impact on the brain as if it was being directed towards them," she said.
"It floods their little brains with cortisol and they end up living in a hyper vigilent state of flight, fight or freeze and it does have impacts, they have social problems, or learning difficulties, they are quite often diagnosed with ADHD, but actually they've got all this going on at home.
"If they don't get assistance or some sort of counselling or support as a child, it will stay with them for the rest of their lives."
She said anyone who received disclosures of violence or suspected something wasn't right should tell somebody and reach out for help.
The film was funded using a Newcastle City Council $15,000 grant and filmed in three days in April 2021 in Hamilton and Carrington.
