One Minute to Nine

Last updated
One Minute to Nine
One Minute to Nine.jpg
Theatrical poster for One Minute to Nine
Directed by Tommy Davis
Written byTommy Davis
Produced by Jaime Davila
StarringWendy Maldonado
CinematographyTommy Davis
Edited byLuis de Leon
Geof Bartz (Every F---ing Day of My Life)
Music by Leonardo Heiblum
Jacobo Lieberman
Production
company
Distributed by HBO Documentary Films
Release dates
  • August 5, 2007 (2007-08-05)(Locarno Film Festival)
  • July 24, 2009 (2009-07-24)(United States)
Running time
83 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

One Minute to Nine is a 2007 documentary film written and directed by Tommy Davis and produced by Quinto Malo Films. It was later re-edited and screened on HBO as Every F---ing Day of My Life. The film chronicles the last five days of freedom for Wendy Maldonado before she and her son are sentenced for the manslaughter death of her husband and explores the years of domestic abuse the family experienced prior to his death.

Contents

Background

In May 2005, in Grants Pass, Oregon, Wendy Maldonado was arrested and charged with the murder of her husband, Aaron. [1] According to Wendy Maldonado, the incident took place after almost 20 years of violent domestic abuse committed by Aaron against his wife and their four sons. Days later her eldest son, Randall (known as Randy), was arrested for his part in the killing. In 2006, a plea bargain led Wendy and Randy to plead guilty to the reduced charges of manslaughter. [2] Wendy was sentenced to 120 months imprisonment and Randy to 75 months imprisonment. [1] Before sentencing, Randy was detained in jail while Wendy was allowed home on bail to take care of her other three children.

The film follows Wendy in the final days before she begins her sentence and includes home video footage of the family over the years of the Maldonado's marriage, and interviews with friends, family members and neighbors, some of whom witnessed the domestic abuse. [1]

Release

One Minute to Nine was screened at the 2007 Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, where it received Special Mention for Best Feature Length Documentary. The film was later re-edited by Geof Bartz for HBO Documentary Films and retitled it Every F-ing Day of My Life. [3] The new title was drawn from the telephone call to emergency services that Wendy made immediately after killing Aaron. When asked by the operator if her husband had abused her, Wendy responded "every fucking day of my life". [4] The re-edited documentary was screened on HBO on December 14, 2009. [4]

Related Research Articles

Marie Trintignant French actress (1962–2003)

Marie Trintignant was a French film and stage actress. She appeared in over 30 movies during the span of her 36-year career. Her family was deeply involved in France's film industry, as her father was an actor and her mother was a director, producer, and screenwriter.

Rory Kennedy American filmmaker

Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy is an American documentary filmmaker who is the eleventh and youngest child of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel. Kennedy has made documentary films that center on social issues such as addiction, nuclear radiation, the treatment of prisoners-of-war, and the politics of the Mexican border fence. Her films have been featured on many television networks.

Wendy Richard English actress (1943–2009)

Wendy Richard was an English actress, known for her television roles as Miss Shirley Brahms on the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served? from 1972 to 1985, and Pauline Fowler on the soap opera EastEnders from 1985 to 2006.

Evan Rachel Wood American actress and singer (born 1987)

Evan Rachel Wood is an American actress and activist. She is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Television Award as well as three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations for her work in film and television.

Battered woman syndrome (BWS) is a pattern of signs and symptoms displayed by a woman who has suffered persistent intimate partner violence: whether psychological, physical, or sexual, from her male partner. It is classified in the ICD-9 as battered person syndrome, but is not in the DSM-5. It may be diagnosed as a subcategory of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Griffin Patrick O'Neal is an American actor. He has appeared in films such as The Escape Artist, April Fool's Day, The Wraith, Assault of the Killer Bimbos, and Ghoulies III.

Ondi Timoner American film director

Ondi Doane Timoner is an American filmmaker and the founder and CEO of Interloper Films, a full-service production company located in Pasadena, California. Timoner is a two-time recipient of the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize for her documentaries Dig! (2004) and We Live in Public (2009). Both films have been acquired by New York's Museum of Modern Art for their permanent collection.

Geraldine "Gerri" Santoro was an American woman who died because of an unsafe abortion in 1964. A police photograph of her dead body, published by Ms., magazine in 1973, became a symbol for the abortion-rights movement in the United States.

Kiranjit Ahluwalia is an Indian woman who fatally burned her husband in 1989 in the UK. She claimed it was in response to ten years of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. After initially being convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, Ahluwalia's conviction was later overturned on grounds of inadequate counsel and replaced with voluntary manslaughter. Although her submission of provocation failed, she successfully pleaded the partial defence of diminished responsibility under s.2 Homicide Act 1957 on the grounds that fresh medical evidence may indicate diminished mental responsibility.

<i>Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired</i> 2008 American film

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired is a 2008 documentary film directed by Marina Zenovich. It concerns film director Roman Polanski and his sexual abuse case. It examines the events that led to Polanski fleeing the United States after being embroiled in a controversial trial, and his unstable reunion with his adopted country. A follow-up to the film, also directed by Zenovich, titled Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out was released on 26 March 2013, detailing Polanski's successful legal battle to avoid extradition to the US, a battle that took place after Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired came out.

Jennifer Fox (documentary filmmaker) American film producer

Jennifer Fox is an American film producer, director, cinematographer, and writer as well as president of A Luminous Mind Film Productions. She won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance for her first feature documentary, Beirut: The Last Home Movie. Her 2010 documentary My Reincarnation had its premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2010, where it won a Top 20 Audience Award.

Tami Gold American film director

Tami Kashia Gold is a documentary filmmaker, visual artist and educator. She is also a Professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York in the Department of Film and Media Studies.

Sara Thornton is a British woman who was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of the 1989 murder of her violent and alcoholic husband, Malcolm Thornton. Thornton never denied the killing, but claimed it had been an accident during an argument. The prosecution at her trial argued that she had carried out the act for financial gain, and she was found guilty of murder. The case became a cause célèbre among women's groups, and ignited a political debate on how the courts should deal with the issue of domestic violence. At a retrial in 1996 Thornton was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter and freed from custody.

<i>Not My Life</i> 2011 film by Robert Bilheimer

Not My Life is a 2011 American independent documentary film about human trafficking and contemporary slavery. The film was written, produced, and directed by Robert Bilheimer, who had been asked to make the film by Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Bilheimer planned Not My Life as the second installment in a trilogy, the first being A Closer Walk and the third being the unproduced Take Me Home. The title Not My Life came from a June 2009 interview with Molly Melching, founder of Tostan, who said that many people deny the reality of contemporary slavery because it is an uncomfortable truth, saying, "No, this is not my life."

<i>Private Violence</i> 2014 American film

Private Violence is a 2014 American documentary film directed and produced by Cynthia Hill. The film focuses on the issue of domestic violence, as told through two survivors. Ultimately, the film centers on dispelling the logic of the commonly asked question: “Why didn’t she just leave?”

Marina Zenovich is an American filmmaker known for her biographical documentaries. Her films include LANCE, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic and Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which won two Emmy awards.

<i>Leaving Neverland</i> 2019 documentary film

Leaving Neverland is a 2019 documentary film directed and produced by the British filmmaker Dan Reed. It focuses on two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who allege they were sexually abused as children by the American singer Michael Jackson.

Sophie Hyde Australian film producer, writer and director

Sophie Hyde is an Australian film director, writer and producer based in Adelaide, South Australia. She is co-founder of Closer Productions and known for her award-winning debut fiction film, 52 Tuesdays (2013) and the comedy drama Animals (2019). She has also made several documentaries, including Life in Movement (2011), a documentary about dancer and choreographer Tanja Liedtke, and television series, such as The Hunting (2019). Her latest film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, premiered at the Sundance Festival on 23 January 2022.

Battered is a 1989 documentary film directed by Academy Award winner Lee Grant. The film is an investigation of domestic violence in American homes. Originally aired on HBO, the film is notable for its level headed look at abusers as well as victims.

On 2 December 2001, a 19-year-old Indonesian maid, Muawanatul Chasanah, was found beaten to death in a house by the Bedok Reservoir, Singapore.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hale, Mike (December 14, 2009), "Study of Character, Forged in the Crucible of Tragedy", The New York Times , retrieved January 16, 2011
  2. Associated Press (April 21, 2006), "Wife, Son Sentenced in Ax Death", The Register-Guard , Eugene, Oregon: Guard Publishing Co., retrieved January 16, 2011
  3. "Every f—ing day of my life". December 13, 2009. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
  4. 1 2 Lowry, Brian (December 13, 2009), "Every F---ing Day of My Life", Variety , Reed Business Information , retrieved January 16, 2011