BY SARA EDWARDS

A compelling new documentary debuts in Boston this week that will open your eyes to a stunning injustice. No Way Out But One was co-written and directed by Emmy award winning television producer Garland Waller, currently a professor at Boston University. Waller, a friend and former colleague of mine at WBZ-TV, asked me to go to San Diego in August to critique the unfinished doc at a conference on domestic violence.

                        Her Kids Called Her a Hero. 

       Screening of Award-Winning Documentary

Boston, MA – Production has just been completed on No Way Out But One, an independent documentary by Garland Waller and Barry Nolan. The film tells the incredible story of Holly Collins, a kidnapper to some and a hero to many.  The film also examines the larger issue of the tragic failure of the family court system to achieve its most important mandate, to protect children.

In 1994,  Holly Collins was a desperate mother determined to protect her children from abuse at the hands of their father. Believing that she had no other choice, Holly kidnapped her own kids, left everything behind, and went on the run. She became an international fugitive, wanted by the FBI. She became the first American to ever be granted asylum by the Dutch government as a result of domestic violence.  

To capture the full story, the happily married team of veteran producers, Garland Waller and Barry Nolan, traveled to the Netherlands, Washington D.C., St. Paul, Minnesota, and Albany, NY. They used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain never before seen FBI files. They gathered extensive medical evidence, court records, and sworn affidavits.  They drew on published research and interviewed witnesses, legal experts and doctors.

Rita Smith, the Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence said of the film: "No Way Out But One is a compelling account of exactly why the family court system in the United States needs to be completely overhauled.“ 

Eileen King of Justice for Children said: “The quiet flame that lights No Way Out But One is Holly Collin's courage and fierce determination to protect her children from the violent abuse they were suffering in their father's home.”

For her work on the film, Executive Producer Garland Waller has already won the 2011 Distinguished Service Award for Excellence in Film and Media from the Institute on Violence Abuse and Trauma.  No Way Out But One has been chosen to kick off this year’s Chicks Make Flicks Screening Series for Women in Film and Video / New England sponsored by the MIT Program in Women’s and Gender Studies on the MIT campus on October 27th at 7PM, Room 6-120 of Building 6.  The screening is free and open to the public.

Last night - taking a break from the nearly non-stop editing - Garland Waller supervised the final shoot for No Way Out But One. And she had the chance to share a truly remarkable moment with Holly Collins, the subject of her film.

Just over 17 years after Holly Collins grabbed her children and fled the country to save them from a life of abuse -  Holly came home to America. 

Holly and her four young Dutch children arrived at Boston Logan Airport just before sunset. Her older children - the ones she saved from a life of abuse - will join her shortly. They will settle in a small little house that is all their own and write new chapters in what has already been an inspiring story. 

The film will have its premier at the 16th annual International Conference on Violence Abuse and Trauma in San Diego on September 11th. To all those whose generosity, support, and kindness have helped make this film possible - you are our heroes. And we just can't thank you enough.

Like a trip through Lewis Caroll’s Looking Glass, the Family Court System of Hennepin County Minnesota is a very strange world all unto itself. That is one of the things we discovered again and again on our final round of interviews for NO WAY OUT BUT ONE conducted in Minnesota last week.  

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Garland Interviews a Witness in Minnesota 

Garland and I have just returned from an intense round of interviews where we spoke to a wide variety of people, from protective mom’s to trial witnesses. We tried to speak  to the Judge, the Court appointed social worker, the father, the guardian ad litem and others in the Holly Collins case, but they all refused. Overlooking the shores of a peaceful lake, we interviewed attorney Connie Hope about what it was like for protective moms down in the trenches of the family court wars. She told us something that sadly we had heard before. She often advises her clients in the midst of a custody battle, not to raise the issue of domestic violence, even if there is credible supporting medical evidence. In the strange world of family courts, being a victim of domestic violence  can somehow work against a mother’s chances of gaining custody of her children.  As it did for Holly Collins. What we heard in Minnesota sadly comports what with we have found in the peer reviewed research about problems in the family court system. You can read a good sampling of that research on the NO WAY OUT BUT ONE web site under the “Issue” button. 

Connie also told us that the FBI investigation of the Holly Collins case was extraordinarily intense and cast a chill over the community of  those who are concerned about the issues of domestic violence and child abuse.

This trip and the long process of writing and editing the feature length version of NO WAY OUT BUT ONE has been made possible by the generous support of the donors you can see here on the Kickstarter site. Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts.

Barry Nolan

Garland Waller

Today - shortly after noon - NO WAY OUT BUT ONE was officially declared FUNDED! by Kickstarter. Garland and I can't begin to thank all the 100-plus contributors enough for their generous support. 

And tomorrow - Garland and I are on a flight to St. Paul, MN - to do some of the last interviews -  including a number of people who were involved in the case 17 years ago - people who were interviewed by the FBI - and people who helped Holly and Jennifer get all the charges dismissed - save one. Contempt of Court.

Next week - we unplug the phones and dive in to editing like mad. We'll keep you posted whenever we come up for air.

Sincerely,

Barry Nolan