Film phase:Completed

SYNOPSIS

The Chosen Life follows the story of Dr. Yashica Robinson as she offers reproductive options for women in Huntsville, Alabama, where abortion providers face harassment, ostracism, and state-sanctioned obstacles.

 

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

The Chosen Life is directed by Dawn Porter.

Dawn Porter is an award-winning filmmaker whose 2013 documentary Gideon’s Army won the Sundance Film Festival Editing Award, Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award, ABA Silver Gavel Award for Media and the Arts, and Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize. Dawn directed and produced Spies of Mississippi — a critically-acclaimed historical documentary that was part of ITVS’ 2014 Independent Lens series on PBS. The film tells the little-known story of a state-sponsored campaign to defeat the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

Dawn recently completed Rise: The Promise of My Brother’s Keeper, a documentary film chronicling President Obama’s program to help young men and boys of color succeed. She interviewed President Obama for the film which is set to air nationally on The Discovery Channel and The Oprah Winfrey Newtwork.

Prior to her independent filmmaking career, Dawn worked as Director of Standards and Practices at ABC News and as Vice President of Standard and Practices at A&E Television Networks. She graduated from Swarthmore College and Georgetown Law Center.

 

NOW PLAYING

In 2016, The Chosen Life debuted as a New York Times Op-Doc. To watch, visit the New York Times Op-Docs website. This film was inspired by Dawn Porter’s feature-length documentary Trapped, which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award for Social Impact Filmmaking, and which appeared on PBS’s Independent Lens on June 2016.