Local Beaconite and blogger Linsey Gatto shared in the Beacon Moms Facebook Group about a screening at Story Screen on May 24, 2022 of the documentary “And So I Stayed,” a portrayal of Nikki Addimando, who in September 2017, in her Poughkeepsie apartment, fatally shot her abusive partner to save her own life. She was taken from her two young children and put into jail. The screening is a fundraiser for Nikki in the continuation of her legal battle to end her sentence. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased here.

Nikki is one of many domestic violence survivors who is incarcerated after defending themselves. However, she has one of the biggest platforms to bring the spotlight to this issue for all incarcerated domestic violence survivors, thanks in part to a grassroots group like Community Defense Committee, of which Linsey Gatto is a part of.

According to Nikki’s website, in February 2020, Nikki was sentenced by Judge Edward T. McLoughlin to 19 years to life in prison. “After securing national media attention and a new legal team at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, the NY State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division (Second Department) decided that Nikki should have been sentenced under the Domestic Violence Survivors’ Justice Act, and resentenced her to 7.5 years.”

According to the film’s website: “‘And So I Stayed’ is an award-winning documentary about survivors of abuse fighting for their lives and spending years behind bars. This is the story of how the legal system gets domestic violence wrong. It is a moving portrait of Kim, Tanisha, and Nikki, three survivors whose strikingly similar stories are separated by over 30 years. None of them were believed, and each of them was criminalized for fighting back.”

After the screening at 8pm, a Q+A will take place with the film’s directors Daniel A. Nelson and Natalie Pattillo, and Nikki’s sister, advocate and writer Michelle Horton and previously incarcerated DV survivor and advocate Kim Dadou Brown (who are both in the film).

Buy tickets here.