Find Hope In The Aftermath Of Horrific Violence With The Promo For South African Doc ALISON

The woman smiling at you above should arguably not be smiling. She shouldn't even be alive. And that Alison Botha not only survived an absolutely brutal attempt on her life but has transcended it to bring a message of hope to people is a story very well worth telling, which is precisely what South African filmmaker Uga Carlini is doing.

Raped. Neck slashed more than 17 times. Stabbed in the stomach over 37 times. Disembowelled. Dumped on the outskirts of a nature reserve, dead - or so they thought...

One of the worst things about gender violence is the fear and shame it breeds. That is why, when the going gets really tough, we need ordinary people of extraordinary strength and courage to jolt us out of our numbness and offer us hope. In the early hours of the morning of December 18th 1994, a 27-year old Alison Botha became one such an individual.

Today that night may have left a crisscross of scars on Alison's abdomen and a permanent reminder circles her neck, but the irony is that the destructive and mindless frenzy of violence unlocked in Alison a positive, healing force. The way in which she chooses to deal with the on-going trauma's different shapes and sizes as it keeps showing up in her life when she leasts expects it, is what's interesting here. Turns out that by telling her story on her terms while being first hand evidence that there is no right or wrong way as to how, Alison is the proof of the liberating power that comes with owning the story of one's life.

Alison knows what has been done cannot be undone. But she is not defined by what happened to her but rather by whom she chose to become. Easy it has certainly not been and when we meet the private Alison, a side of her who has never emerged into the spotlight, her inner transformation seems on-going and at times even a struggle. Despite that Alison has risen over the malignant and diabolic shadows that tried to break her on that night. She engulfed its darkness by deciding to be the hero to her own story and in the process she has left footprints behind for us to try on for size.

With the documentary feature Alison now in production, Carlini has released a brief promo to give a taste of what is to come. Take a look below.