TEEN ACID ATTACK VICTIM GETS HELP

Video available at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=gxITINLGUbg.

Outtakes from the documentary film ORDINARY JOE - a film by Carlo Gennarelli. Videography by Bill Day (see trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPiTcX0GVeo)

Acid throwing (acid attack[ or vitriolage) is a form of violent assault. It is defined as the act of throwing acid onto the body of a person “with the intention of injuring or disfiguring him out of jealousy or revenge”. Perpetrators of these attacks throw acid at their victims, usually at their faces, burning them, and damaging skin tissue, often exposing and sometimes dissolving the bones. The long term consequences of these attacks include blindness and permanent scarring of the face and body.

These attacks are most common in Viet Nam, Cambodia Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other nearby countries. According to Taru Bahl and M.H. Syed, 80% of victims of these acid attacks are female and almost 70% are under 18 years of age.

Ordinary Joe presents a captivating portrait of Joe Sciacca, a beer drinking, blue-collar Vietnam War veteran from Long Island, NY whose life proves to be anything but ordinary. Driven by complex motives, Joe annually returns to Vietnam traveling its back alleys and country roads, searching out the poor, diseased and disabled. By single-mindedly delivering envelopes of small donations collected back home, this brash New Yorker has proven to be an unlikely champion to a far away and seemingly forgotten people.