One Minute to Nine is one of three films that I’ve been wandering around Austin championing as a must-see, and every time I offer the in-a-nutshell synopsis to someone who hasn’t heard of it, their jaw drops. This is what I’ve been saying: One Minute to Nine is about Wendy Maldonado, a woman whose husband beat and emotionally tortured her and her three sons for two decades. One day, the woman cracks and beats her husband’s head in with a hammer. The film tracks her last few days before she goes to prison for the crime, as she explains why she did it, why she feels no remorse, and why ten years in a prison is a victory compared to what her life would have been like had her husband lived.

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