"'To the outside world, families in which incest is occurring look like any other family,' observes Theresa Tollini, director of the award winning documentary Breaking Silence. This point she makes heartbreakingly apparent by juxtaposing the horrifying personal accounts of survivors of sexual abuse in childhood with old snapshots and home movies of these adults as children: their brightly smiling faces behind a birthday cake or around a Christmas tree make a devastatingly ironic contrast to what we know of their lives off camera. Brilliantly interspersed between the interview footage and the old photographs appear hauntingly expressive crayon and paint drawings by sexually abused children. Thus the now restrained, controlled voices of the interviewees, men and women who have been fortunate enough to come to terms with their tragic childhoods through the therapeutic effects of 'breaking silence,' are counterpointed with these primitive but powerful illustrations of the ego-shattering experiences of terror, rage and helplessness they once had to endure. Breaking Silence alerts us all to disturbing undercurrents in our society, but above all it makes a powerful plea toward incest victims and offenders in the hope that they too will 'break silence' and let the healing process begin." Marilyn Fabe