Documentary films depend on the willingness of people to allow the sharing of their stories and ideas on screen. But as a type of journalism, documentary films are generally also subject to an ethical standard that dictates their subjects, who often possess limited financial resources as they are not paid for their efforts or contributions.

In 2007, the True/False Film Fest attempted to highlight and address this reality by establishing the True Life Fund, which raises and awards money to one or more on-camera subjects of a film screened during each year’s festival. “Private Violence,” a documentary about domestic violence, will be highlighted as this year’s True Life Fund recipient film.

“Private Violence” attempts to dispel the myths of domestic violence and portray its realities by examining the common social refrain “Why don’t they just leave?” frequently posed about victims of domestic violence. The film examines these issues by documenting the experiences of Deanna Walters, who is attempting to deal with and move forward from domestic violence she faced at the hands of her ex-husband, and Kit Gruelle, an advocate for victims of domestic abuse, who also survived domestic violence.

Gruelle and Walters, who will attend screenings of the film at this year’s festival along with the film’s director, Cynthia Hill, will receive the money raised by the True Life Fund.

“I’m thrilled about the award,” Gruelle says. “I’m still not exactly sure what it means yet or anything like that, but I think it’s great that our film and, more importantly, this issue that affects 25 percent of women — and I think that’s a conservative number — are getting this kind of attention.”

For Hill, the award is gratifying because it provides both recognition for the work of her subjects and a sense of confirmation that her film is having an effect.

“It’s just overwhelming,” Hill says. “It’s an honor for the film itself, but then both of these women have been through so much. And just getting this kind of formal recognition is just a validation that this story is important, and other people recognize how important it is … by putting it on screen and being able to tell that story. … People are going to be able to get something out of that.”

Both Hill and Gruelle are hopeful that the film, which took six years to produce, will challenge viewers’ assumptions about domestic violence.

“People assume they know the story of domestic violence because they see the headlines all the time and it’s covered on the news,” Hill says. “They think that ‘Yes, I am against domestic violence,’ but what ends up happening is we don’t do anything about it, and we have a tendency to blame the victim and ask, ‘Why doesn’t she just leave?’ We have these assumptions of ‘This is never going to happen to us’ because we would be too strong for that and be out of here if our lover hit us.”

They hope to change the way the issue is thought about, discussed and ultimately addressed in society.

“I am hoping that this documentary will show what’s wrong with questions and the whole narrative of domestic violence, and that would really go a long way to being able to make real changes around this issue.”

Hill believes part of what makes the film effective is that she approached the issue with many of these same biases.

“I started from the same place with the same assumptions I think most of us have, and as I filmed I began to see what’s wrong and incorrect about the assumptions we have,” Hill says. “I realized that we can really change the conversation if we can just get people to understand that the question ‘Why doesn’t she just leave?’ is the wrong one to ask. I think we will accomplish a lot through this because, if you can no longer ask that question and push the blame onto her, it means you have to ask something different and take a different action.”

Hill, also a documentary filmmaker, is grateful the festival is willing to provide such a generous award to documentary subjects.

“We expect subjects to give so freely of stories, and we get to use them and share those with the world and that’s supposed to be their reward,” Hill says. “So actually giving them something of value like this money is really awesome and something we should do more of. After all, when someone needs help, why can’t we help or at least reward him or her for work they’ve done? This award is really going to help Deanna and Kit.”