Meredith Yinger, the founder and owner of SheTV Media, has released her first documentary, “Scars Unseen,” which highlights the stories of three women who have faced domestic violence. The film is currently making the rounds on the film festival circuit.

Yinger launched her video production company in 2022 with the goal of empowering women and sharing their stories. She aims to “tell the untold.” The company functions does both commercial work and documentary feature work.

“Oftentimes in the media, we see so much negativity and lack of human portrayal of people in front of and behind the camera,” Yinger says. “And I think I kind of got to a point where I was so frustrated that I could either complain about it forever or I could do something about it. So that's when I decided to start creating my own content.”

The concept for “Scars Unseen” began in 2018 when Yinger pitched the documentary to the Film Independent and Loyola Marymount University Incubator Lab. Yinger was inspired by one of the women who eventually would become one of the three women interviewed for the documentary.

“Trish Steele, who's one of our leading ladies, runs the nonprofit Safe Passage Heals, previously known as Women Crowned in Glory, and she has been doing this work in domestic violence for decades now,” Yinger says. “We were working with her nonprofit and filming some videos for her. And in that process of learning her story, we were just kind of like, wow, this needs to be told.”

Yinger says she “realized that this isn't a one size fits all issue” and brought in the other two women featured, Maha Bodhi and Adrienne Rouan, to provide a look at different experiences of women who experienced domestic violence.

“That kind of tied everything together for us in terms of showcasing the breadth and depth of domestic violence and how it impacts people differently,” Yinger says. “It doesn't discriminate, right? People of all socioeconomic statuses and upbringings experience it. And so I really wanted to showcase these different stories of triumph and how they have overcome, and what they have done with their lives to pay it forward as well.”

Though they completed the interview process in 2019, the documentary was not finished until December as it took time for Yinger and the team to complete post-production. Music was also a major element in adding the finishing touch for each story in the finished product.

As with most projects, one of the most challenging aspects has been to secure the necessary funds for completion. COVID-19 also presented a challenge for Yinger and her team. However, from Yinger’s perspective, it also made the project more essential. After COVID, the number of women who have experienced domestic violence jumped from 1 in 4 women to 1 in 3.

“I thought it was really meaningful that we had actually chosen three women to highlight and to really emphasize that unfortunate statistic [and] to draw attention to that, and to bring this issue back to the forefront and get people talking about it,” Yinger says.

Since domestic violence is a sensitive subject, Yinger was particular with the way in which she approached the filmmaking and production process. The goal was to ensure that the women being interviewed were comfortable, so Yinger sought to build trust with them. She also allowed them to share what they were comfortable with rather than attempting to control the narrative herself, and she emphasized open communication on set.

“In the film, you'll see that we showcase a lot of the behind-the-scenes, and that was something I thought was a very key element to have shown because not a lot of documentaries showcase who's asking the questions, and what that interaction and relationship is like,” Yinger says. “And I think it really matters who asks the question, how you ask the question and what kind of relationship and tone you are setting for not only that interview, but also for the entire set.”

Yinger currently has upcoming showings for “Scars Unseen” scheduled at The Women’s Film Festival that starts on Aug. 15 in Philadelphia, as well as showings in California and Minnesota in September and October, respectively.

Yinger has more plans in the pipeline for SheTV, including goals to grow her commercial content brand. She also has a second feature film in the works about the sexual health revolution in women’s healthcare.

She hopes to eventually take “Scars Unseen” on a community screening tour so people can better understand the topic of domestic violence. She would like to distribute the documentary to universities, first responders, academies, legal institutions and other professionals who might encounter or be the first on scene for domestic violence calls.

“A lot of times when people hear ‘domestic violence,’ they think specifically of one stereotype, or one instance, or one thing that that looks like,” Yinger says. “And what I really want people to understand and take away is that this is not a story about glamorizing abuse or highlighting the abuser.

“This is really a story of three women who have overcome the unimaginable and are not only healing themselves, but are also reaching behind to help the next person in line experiencing this. I want people to walk away with the understanding that we can always change our own narrative, and that there is always hope, and that we as a society can definitely benefit from being more trauma informed.”

For more information www.meredithyinger.com

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