“I am sorry about what happened to you. It is a completely unfair system,” Ginger Gentile said while corresponding with this author, “The producer of the film, Gabriel Balanovsky, was also jailed for a year and a half and there are many cases like this all over the world.” She goes on to explain how her film Erasing Dad was actually banned in Argentina and removed from YouTube. But the campaign of government censorship has only added fuel to the fire.

Erasing Dad

Erasing Dad is a 78-minute documentary that follows six fathers who are fighting to raise their children after a divorce and features interviews with professionals who admit, on camera, that they do everything possible to keep children and fathers separated. Fathers rights advocates continue to post and repost the film on YouTube where victimized parents around the world are watching it and passing it along. There are even documented instances where Family Court judges have reversed their rulings after viewing the documentary.

In addition to the main film, there are also a number of shorter video clips from victimized children and fathers urging people to help expose their unjust plight. One of those film shorts is only three minutes long. But the emotion of the interviewees, combined with the corruption and injustice they are experiencing, is powerful and impactful.

Quotes from the documentary

“When my daughter was in second grade, I wasn’t allowed to see her,” one father tells the filmmakers, “The only way to see her was during recess at school.” Another dad says, “It angers me that I can’t take part in my daughters’ education or pick them up from school.” The riveting filmmakers then jump to an explosive scene where a young boy is being ripped from his father’s arms crying, “I want to go with dad!”

One father recalls, “My ex told my son, look at your dad, because this is the last time you’ll see him.” Another father quotes his ex telling him, “’I’m going to erase you as a dad.’ Those were her last words.” A separate dad tells the camera, “I went to the police to file charges for not being able to see the kids. They didn’t want to file charges, which is normal in these cases.” His attorney then explains, “Even though this is against the law, judges don’t consider it to be a crime.”

Another father explains his ordeal saying, “If the judge in your case does not even bother to read the file, years can pass without you being able to see your children.” A different father adds his experience, “She doesn’t take the kids to the court-ordered therapy with me. Without the therapy, they won’t give me visitation. Nobody puts a limit on her and time keeps passing.”

One of the dads goes on to explain, “I spent six years in the family justice system.” While a fathers rights attorney adds, “A huge number of professionals live off of family conflicts. But it is the children who end up paying the price.”

Judges and caseworkers aren’t the only ones exposed in the documentary. One mother explains how some moms are orchestrating the elimination of dad from their children’s lives themselves. She quotes a common tactic used by parents saying, “If you see your father or talk to him on the phone, you can’t go play. So the poor child says, ‘No, I don’t want to see dad.’ Dad becomes a monster.”

False and disproven accusations  

One aspect of child custody battles that seems common to countries all over the world is the act of leveling false charges of abuse against the fathers. In the US, there are even websites that train and instruct mothers to knowingly lie in court under oath and accuse dad of heinous acts, because as they say, all moms do it and the tactic works.

One father in the documentary Erasing Dad explains his experience, “She went to the domestic violence office and filed her first false accusation. Many of these have been proven false. He [caseworker] told me, ‘The child is its mother’s property.’ He used this exact wording, ‘mother’s property.’”

A female attorney then explains, “In many family court cases, there are accusations that are never proven. And when they are proven false, many years have passed.” The filmmakers interview a number of fathers who themselves, or their children, are actually victims of abuse perpetrated by the mother. But, according to them, moms are exempt from prosecution.

One attorney tells his client’s story saying, “He filed a statement with the police station that the mother wanted to kill her children. And what did the District Attorney do? Nothing.” Two days after the mother murdered her kids, the grieving father demanded answers from a judge regarding why no officials would act on his dire warning only two days earlier.

“What if I went crazy and hit one of my children in the head with a bar?” he asked the judge, “And I crack his skull, causing the same injuries as the mother?” The judge replied, “You would go to prison.” “Why would I go to prison,” the father questioned. The judge answered, “Because you are the dad.”

The film’s three-minute preview ends with large-scale protests in countries around the world by fathers demanding to see their children. One says, “The judge assigned a visitation schedule. But the mother never showed up with the kids and she was never penalized for it.” Another demonstration featured a victimized dad with a megaphone telling the crowd, “I want justice. I want to see my son.” Another father tells fellow protesters, “We want to see our children, and our children want to see us.”

Three-minute preview of the documentary Erasing Dad

For more information and to view the documentary Erasing Dad, visit the film’s website. The creators have already begun planning a follow-up film titled, ‘Erasing Family’. Visit their Facebook page for details.