The Nightingale Roars is the moving, personal story of an incest survivor's process of recovery. Constance Nightingale was born in 1935. Her first conscious memory is of being raped at age 12 by a family friend. She became a single mother at twenty and married at twenty-one. Violence in the marriage eventually led to blindness and she was separated at twenty-five. She became homeless. At thirty-two she regained her sight. She remarried and had six daughters, but by forty she was again divorced and homeless. At forty-seven, on her mother's death, she regained the memory of her childhood - a childhood of sexual abuse by her father.
This tape records her process of healing through therapy. As the camera explores the childhood house, yard and the surrounding countryside, she explains her feelings of confusion and rage. The tape is both poetic and clear-headed.
Constance Nightengale practised social work and psychotherapy, and worked in the field of child sexual abuse. Throughout she wrote poetry to record her journey as a survivor of incest and to bring hope to others.
During the premiere screening on TV Ontario, the station received over 80 000 calls to discuss the film and the issues.