Recovering Irma

Sandra and her nephew Lorenzo swing open Pandora's Box in the aftermath of domestic violence homicide, seeking to stop the vicious cycle so generations have the chance to be free.

synopsis

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.
-Leonard Cohen

Fifteen years ago, Sandra Salas's father killed her mother Irma and then killed himself, marking a horrific end to a generation of family domestic violence.

On the day of Irma's funeral in 1995, the surviving members of the Salas family - 5 brothers and sisters - made a vow that the domestic dysfunction that took both their parents' lives would end with them. But today - confronted with her nephew Lorenzo's arrest for domestic violence - Sandra knows the cycle hasn't been broken, and she has to act. The result is Recovering Irma from writer-director and storyteller Sandra Salas, a documentary journey across geography and generations, memories and mysteries.