To benefit Prison Books Program

Film series
$5 donation
7 – 9 pm

THE NATURE OF THE BEAST
by Ondi Timoner
color, 60 minutes
The Nature of the Beast explores the life and case of a woman, Bonnie Jean
Foreshaw, who was subjected to years of abuse, as a child and in three
separate marriages. At the age of thirty-eight, Ms Foreshaw was found guilty
of first degree murder. She had begun carrying a handgun for self-protection
after her third husband, whom she had recently divorced, continued stalking
and threatening her in the early months of 1986. This same handgun was the
weapon Ms Forshaw used when, in a moment of panic, she accidentally shot and
killed a pregnant women in an attempt to protect herself from a man who was
physically assaulting her at a gas station in Hartford, Connecticut. Both
her assailant and victim were complete strangers to Ms Forshaw. Although the
man later testified in court that he had pulled the pregnant woman in front
of him as a shield when he saw Ms Foreshaw take out her hand gun, she was
nevertheless found guilty of pre-meditated murder. Ms Foreshaw is now
serving the longest prison sentence of any woman in Connecticut—45
years—without the possibility of parole.
“I met Bonnie Foreshaw in the spring of 1994 while directing and producing a
documentary on women in prison, Voices From Inside Time, for a senior
seminar at Yale University on transgressive women in American society. I was
overwhelmed by Ms Forshaw’s strength of character and felt compelled to make
a documentary about this woman and her dark journey through our criminal
justice system…Over the course of this project, I conducted sixty
interviews with the people involved with Bonnie Forshaw’s life and case over
the years, as well as various legal and psychological experts who were able
to provide crucial information regarding some of the issues which my
documentary explores. The video focuses on the way in which battered women
are treated in our criminal justice system. We structured the documentary so
that the interviewees tell the story piece by piece, from their respective
points of view. There is no narration by anyone outside the story. Bonnie
Forshaw herself provides a poignant and charismatic narrative link through
the piece. Bonnie Forshaw’s earliest release date is 2018. Her life story
brings to light many of the harsh realities that battered women face
everyday.”
Filmmaker, Ondi Timoner
http://www.der.org/films/nature-of-the-beast.html
This series to benefit the Prison Book Program, a Boston-based non-profit
organization, which has been sending free books to prisoners for 25 years.
Prisoners write to us with their book requests on all topics. We send books
to almost all prisons in the United States. We wish to encourage
self-education and literacy among prisoners.

Prison Book Program
110 Arlington St.
Boston, MA 02116
617.423.3298
<prisonbookprogram@hotmail.com>

4 Walls Film Series
Production: Marjy Bangs <fruitcat@hotmail.com>