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THE REEL REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE STORY

Chicken & Egg Pictures was founded in 2005 to support women nonfiction filmmakers taking on the most urgent issues of the day through film. We had no doubt that reproductive justice would be one of many critical human rights issues that warranted our exploration. Still, by 2010, we were genuinely shocked by the onslaught of anti-abortion legislation sweeping the nation. As we witnessed history-making filibusters, massive protests from both sides of the choice paradigm, and widespread clinic closures due to targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) laws, Chicken & Egg Pictures' started to see women filmmakers responding to this crisis as artists.

We began to hear from women filmmakers in the field, filmmakers working in countries where abortion was completely illegal or becoming criminalized and filmmakers in the US, where abortion is legal, but often inaccessible. Their angles were local, national and global, and each offered a character-driven and historically resonant perspective. In the end, we selected a cohort of eight, funded over the course of four years. As a group, they show the effects of public health policy and law on women, families, doctors, lawyers and activists around the world. While each film represents a complex and powerful narrative about reproductive justice, the eight films seen together have even more impact.

We are thrilled to bring Reel Reproductive Justice to medical school campuses and universities across the country, especially at this moment when medical schools are being thrust into a new wave of state-level legislative assaults against comprehensive reproductive health care, including limiting or stopping the teaching of abortion procedures at medical schools.

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Background

Starting in 2009, Working Films, with the support of film funders Chicken and Egg Pictures and The Fledgling Fund, began a series of thematic engagement residencies and trainings for filmmakers tackling some of the most critical issues of our time -- from climate change to education reform to economic justice. The operating logic: it takes more than one film on a single issue, put into the hands of dedicated on-the-ground grassroots activists and organizers, presented on multiple screens (theatrical release, broadcast television, community screenings) and across a wide array of social media and press platforms, to help catalyze systemic change. These residencies evolved into active cohorts of filmmakers, targeted campaigns and Working Film’s ongoing Reel Engagement initiative.

Reel Reproductive Justice is a thematic cohort, funded and curated by Chicken & Egg Pictures. It spotlights reproductive justice and the urgent need for comprehensive reproductive healthcare for all.


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The Films

Chicken & Egg Pictures is proud to support Reel Reproductive Justice—a cohort of eight independent documentaries, each one a compelling story-driven exploration into the struggle for reproductive rights and access to care, across the U.S and around the world. They feature healthcare providers, civil rights lawyers, policymakers, on-the-ground and on-the-wave activists and women and men in the throes of making urgent choices about their health, their family and their futures.

  • aftertiller_Dr-Robinson-344x344

    After Tiller

  • younglakota_Sunny-Clifford-344x344

    Young Lakota

  • vessel_1-344x344

    Vessel

  • beautiful_sin_cryopreserved_embryos-344x344

    Beautiful Sin

  • A Quiet Inquisition

    A Quiet Inquisition

  • NoMasBebes_344x344

    No Más Bebés

  • thebill_maternityward2-344x344

    Infanity

  • Trapped_2-344x344

    Trapped

After Tiller

About the Film

After the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas in 2009, there are only four doctors who openly provide third-trimester abortions in the United Stated. After Tiller paints a complex, compassionate portrait of these physicians, who have become the new number-one targets of the anti-abortion movement. The physicians continue to risk their lives every day to do work that many believe is murder, but which they believe is profoundly important for their patients’ lives.

The Filmmakers

aftertiller_Martha

Martha Shane (co-director/co-producer) is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker, and After Tiller is her second feature documentary. She previously co-directed, produced and co-edited Bi the Way, which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and debuted on the LOGO Channel. Martha is currently producing the feature documentaries The Mystery of Marie Jocelyne and Project Dad (working title). She graduated from Wesleyan University in 2005 with a BA in Film Studies.

aftertiller_Lana

Lana Wilson (co-director/co-producer) is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker, and After Tiller is her feature documentary debut. Lana was previously the Film and Dance Curator for Performa, the New York biennial of new visual art performance. She is currently in production on her second film, Last Call, which goes inside the lives of a remarkable group of Zen Buddhist priests combating Japan’s suicide problem. She holds a BA in Film Studies and Dance from Wesleyan University, where she graduated with honors. www.lanawilson.net

Visit aftertillermovie.com to learn more or inquire about screening just this film!

Young Lakota

About the Film

Young Lakota follows the journey of Sunny Clifford, a young Lakota woman who returns to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota with a dream to change the world around her. Her political awakening begins when Cecelia Fire Thunder, the first female president of the Oglala Lakota nation, defies a South Dakota law banning abortion by threatening to build a women’s clinic on the reservation. In the subsequent political firestorm, Sunny, her twin sister Serena, and their neighbor Brandon Ferguson make choices that define who they are, and what kind of adults they will become.

Sovereign Bodies, a sister campaign to Young Lakota, highlights the work that Native American women have been doing to afford Natives the same access to health services as non-Natives.

The Filmmakers

Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt (co-directors/co-producers), partners in their company Incite Pictures/Cine Qua Non, produce and direct feature documentaries that entertain, educate and explore critical contemporary issues. Young Lakota is the latest in a series of films that use the dramatic stories of individual women to explore the fraught terrain of reproductive justice. The Education of Shelby Knox, their prior film, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005, and opened that year’s POV series. Marion and Rose are currently producing Simple Justice: The Trial of Bei Bei Shuai, about a Chinese immigrant accused of murder and feticide for attempting to commit suicide while pregnant.

Visit younglakota.com and sovereignbodies.com to inquire about screening just this film and to learn more!

Vessel

About the Film

Dr. Rebecca Gomperts sails a ship around the world, providing abortions at sea for women with no legal alternative. Her idea begins as a flawed spectacle, faced with governmental, religious, and military blockade. But with each setback she faces, Rebecca hones a more refined mission, until she realizes she can use new technologies to bypass law—and train women to give themselves abortions using World Health Organization-researched protocols with pills. From there we witness her create an underground network of emboldened, informed activists who trust women to handle abortions themselves.

The Filmmaker

Diana Whitten

Diana Whitten (director/producer) has a decade of professional film and television direction, production, and design experience. She founded Sovereignty Productions in 2008, following a Fulbright Fellowship to Indonesia, and was the Director of Communications at Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program. Vessel, her first feature film, premiered at the 2014 South by Southwest Film Festival and won the Audience Award in the Documentary Competition, as well as a Special Jury Award for Political Courage.

Visit vesselthefilm.com to learn more or inquire about screening just this film!

Beautiful Sin

About the Film

What if you desperately wanted a baby, but your country and religion prohibited you from trying the one medical treatment that could help you? Beautiful Sin tells the surprising, decade-long story of three couples struggling with infertility in Costa Rica who fight their government in an international human rights court for the right to use in vitro fertilization. Costa Rica is the only country in the world that has outlawed the treatment, in which doctors create embryos outside of the body.

The Filmmaker

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Gabriela Quirós has long covered the intersection of science, technology, and social change. Beautiful Sin is her first feature-length documentary. A staff producer since 2006 at KQED Public Television in San Francisco, she has produced and directed over 50 segments and half-hour documentaries for the national science series QUEST, and won two regional Emmy Awards. She grew up in Costa Rica and worked there as a print reporter covering health, the environment, and politics for Spanish and English-language newspapers. She holds two MA degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

A Quiet Inquisition

About the Film

At a public hospital in Nicaragua, Dr. Carla Cerrato contends with the harrowing implications of a new law that bans all abortion, even in cases of rape, incest, or to save a woman’s life. Carla and her colleagues must navigate between the potential of prosecution and the use of medical protocols that save lives. The drama illuminates the reality of prohibition against the backdrop of a Nicaragua’s political, religious, and historically complex identity. As the stakes elevate, and the fatalities become personal, Carla’s outrage and sadness transforms into a willingness to act boldly.

The Filmmakers

a_quiet_inquisiti_alessandra_zeka

Alessandra Zeka (co-director/co-producer) is a director, producer, and cinematographer. Since founding Adrenaline Films in 1998, she has documented hard-to-find stories on women and gender identities in China, India, Albania, Central America, and more. Her films have been broadcast on networks including CNN International, Al Jazeera, ARTE, docuchanel, CBC, RAI, and TVE2. Her work has received support from Sundance/Soros Open Society, Jerome Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, N.Y.F.A., Artslink, and N.Y.S.C.A., among others. Born in Spain, she currently lives in New York City.

a_quiet_inquisiti_holen_kahn

Holen Sabrina Kahn (co-director/co-producer) is a filmmaker and visual artist. Her work has exhibited widely in festivals, galleries, and on television. Projects include Cauldron, shorts on love, time, and the Pacific, and Life of a Woodenfish, on Buddhist monastic life. Her series on the Rwanda genocide includes the film Diplomatic Immunity, which won the 2002 New York Film Festival’s Grand Marnier Award. Since 1998, she has partnered with Adrenaline Films in producing human rights-based documentaries. Holen has worked extensively as an editor, and she holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute, Chicago.

Visit www.QuietInquisition.com to learn more or inquire about screening just this film!

No Más Bebés

About the Film

No Más Bebés uncovers the contested history of the coercive sterilization of Mexican American women at the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center during the 1960s and 1970s. The film follows a group of Chicana mothers, young civil rights attorneys, and one whistle-blowing doctor, who together stand up to powerful institutions in the name of reproductive rights and justice.

"The Med Students for Choice chapter that sponsored the work-in-progress for my film has to operate a bit quietly. I was happy to be able to talk to them about Dr. Rosenfeld - the doctor turned whistle blower featured on forced sterilization in our film -- who is an unsung hero in the battle for choice. They appreciated the fact that we talked to doctors as well as presenting the emotional story of the patients. They were thoughtful about how it relates to the on-the-ground experience and dilemmas they face as young doctors-to-be in a public hospital today. How do you approach patients with full cultural competency when there are 85 different languages spoken and 14 minutes with a patient is considered a luxury? These students carry an awesome ethical obligation on their shoulders which, perhaps, the doctors of the 1970s didn't even consider."

- Renee Tajima-Peña, Director No Más Bebés (film title italics)

The Filmmaker

renee_tajima-pena

Renee Tajima-Peña is an Academy-award nominated filmmaker who focuses her lens on Asian American and immigrant communities, race, gender, and social justice. She has directed and produced more than a dozen films, including Who Killed Vincent Chin? and My America...or Honk if You Love Buddha. Renee is currently Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She was previously a film critic for The Village Voice and has served as a cultural commentator for National Public Radio. Her current work includes Heart Mountain 3.0, an interactive history documentary using the Minecraft video game.

Infanity

About the Film

A political firestorm hits the Philippines when a proposed reproductive health law pitting tradition against reform rocks the legislature. The bill’s defeat or passage holds profound implications for reproductive health policy in this Catholic country, which is home to the hospital with the busiest maternity ward on the planet.

The Filmmaker

thebill_ramona3_9919grey

Ramona Diaz is an award-winning filmmaker best known for her compelling, character-driven documentaries. Her films demonstrate her ability to gain intimate access to the people she films—be they rock stars, first ladies, dissidents, or teachers—resulting in keenly observed moments and nuanced narratives. Her credits include Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey, Imelda, The Learning and Spirits Rising. Aside from Infanity, she is currently working on her first narrative script. Ramona is a graduate of Emerson College and she holds an MA from Stanford University.

Trapped

About the Film

At least half of American women will experience an unintended pregnancy by the age of 45, and four in 10 unwanted pregnancies are terminated by abortion. What would happen if access to care for these cases completely disappeared? Following the progress of two Southern reproductive health clinics, Trapped captures their struggle as they continue to provide care in the face of an increasingly hostile legal and political climate.

The Filmmaker

trapped_Dawn-Porter-headshot

Dawn Porter founded Trilogy Films in 2007 and made her feature documentary directorial debut with Gideon’s Army, which premiered and won the Best Editing Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Gideon’s Army recently had its broadcast television premiere on HBO, receiving rave reviews and high ratings; hailed as “essential…gripping and beautiful” by Esquire; and described by the New York Times as a “stirring” film. Named to the list of “Doc Hot Shots 2012: 15 Emerging Directors to Watch” by Realscreen magazine, Dawn also produced and directed Spies of Mississippi, which aired on Independent Lens in 2014.

Visit trilogy-films.com to learn more about this film!

Why medical schools?

  • wmn
    44%

    of medical schools offer no pre-clinical coursework in abortion care.

  • preg
    25%

    of OB GYN residency programs offering no specialized training in abortion.

  • med
    97%

    of gynecologists encounter patients seeking abortion, but only 14% perform them.

Worldwide, one in five pregnancies ends in abortion. [i] In the United States, doctors perform approximately 1.2 million abortions each year. [ii] And by age 45, more than half of all American women will have an unplanned pregnancy [iii] and more than a third will have an abortion. [iv] A safe procedure—less than 0.05% of patients experience complications with first-trimester procedures [v] —abortions are an essential and common part of comprehensive reproductive healthcare.

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Background

Worldwide, one in five pregnancies ends in abortion. [i] In the United States, doctors perform approximately 1.2 million abortions each year. [ii] And by age 45, more than half of all American women will have an unplanned pregnancy [iii] and more than a third will have an abortion. [iv] A safe procedure—less than 0.05% of patients experience complications with first-trimester procedures [v] —abortions are an essential and common part of comprehensive reproductive healthcare.

Despite this, few medical schools devote substantive time or resources to abortion training. In fact, 44% of medical schools do not provide students with any abortion education or training in pre-clinical years. [vi] Even beyond medical school, 25% of OB-GYN residency programs do not offer training on abortion procedures. [vii] On average, more class time is devoted to instruction about Viagra than to instruction about abortion procedures. [viii] And while abortion training is just one aspect of comprehensive medical education, its absence from most medical curricula serves as a stark example of the lack of adequate training for essential reproductive healthcare, alongside contraception and miscarriage management.

The factors that contribute to the current lack of comprehensive reproductive healthcare training in medical schools are nuanced and many. Perhaps most powerful among them is the enduring cultural stigma against abortion in the United States, the enactment of anti-abortion legislation state-by-state, and the prevalence of anti-abortion sentiment and violence, which has caused medical educators to shy away from providing abortion training, for fear of bad press and political and cultural backlash. This reluctance has contributed to a medical landscape in which 97% of gynecologists encounter patients seeking abortion, but only 14% perform them. [ix]

The number of US abortion providers is in decline. [x] The level of healthcare providers offering abortion services peaked in 1982, when the last wave of doctors who had witnessed the ill effects of unsafe abortions when the procedure was criminalized were approaching retirement. [xi] The “graying” of abortion providers and the lack of training for new physicians puts the availability of abortion services in jeopardy for all.

We at Chicken & Egg Pictures spoke at length with reproductive justice activists, medical students, abortion providers and the filmmakers who were inspired to make the Reel Reproductive Justice films. It became clear to us that future and current healthcare providers—doctors, nurses, counselors and staff—and their teachers are key audiences for these films. The health of our nation is inextricably linked to medical students and residents receiving comprehensive training in family planning and abortion services, which will inform the full spectrum of healthcare they will provide their patients.

Sources:

  • [i] [i] Gilda Sedgh, et al. Induced Abortion: Incidence and Trends Worldwide from 1995 to 2008. The Lancet. 2012.
  • [ii] Rachel K. Jones and Kathryn Kooistra. Abortion Incidence and Access to Services In the United States, 2008. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 2011..
  • [iii] Stanley K. Henshaw. Unintended Pregnancy in the United States. Family Planning Perspectives. 1998.
  • [iv] Rachel K. Jones and Megan L. Kavanaugh. Changes in Abortion Rates Between 2000 and 2008 and Lifetime Incidence of Abortion. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2011.
  • [v] "Induced Abortion in the United States. Guttmacher Institute. 2014.
  • [vi] Atsuko Koyama and Robin Williams. Abortion in Medical School Curricula. McGill Journal of Medicine. 2005.
  • [vii] Beth Rogers. The struggle to integrate abortion training into the medical school curriculum. The New Physician. 2009.
  • [viii] Debra B. Stulberg, et al. Abortion Provision Among Practicing Obstetrician–Gynecologists. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2012.
  • [x] Induced Abortion in the United States. Guttmacher Institute. 2014.
  • [xi] Abortion Providers in the US. Guttmacher Institute.

TRAINING FUTURE RH PROVIDERS?

Medical education in the United States often excludes training in abortion care. This is the case in 44% of medical schools as well as a quarter of residency programs in obstetrics and gynecology. Click the video to your left to learn about how medical students have responded to this problem through organizing Medical Students for Choice.



Press

  • When Doctors Took ‘Family Planning’ Into Their Own Hands
    When Doctors Took ‘Family Planning’ Into Their Own Hands
    Dolores Madrigal remembered being told that her sterilization could be reversed.
  • 'Trapped': Sundance Review
    'Trapped': Sundance Review
    This doc depicts the struggle of Southern abortion clinics under attack by conservative state legislatures.
  • White Feminism Downplayed California’s Coerced Sterilization
    White Feminism Downplayed California’s Coerced Sterilization
    "The larger issue is the idea that some women have children that are more desirable in our society, and others have children that are disposable...”
  • Abortion Providers Secretly Attend Sundance Premiere of ‘Trapped’ Doc
    Abortion Providers Secretly Attend Sundance Premiere of ‘Trapped’ Doc
    The four abortion providers who showed up at the screening spoke about why they continue to perform their duties in the face of potential danger.
  • Film Portrays A'Perfect Storm'
    Film Portrays A 'Perfect Storm'
    "When you're a filmmaker, the easiest thing to do is make a film about the good guys and the bad guys, the heroes and the villains..."
  • The Abortion Ministry of Dr. Willie Parker
    The Abortion Ministry of Dr. Willie Parker
    In Mississippi, there is only one clinic where a woman can go if she needs an abortion.
  • The Story Behind No Mas Bebes
    The Story Behind No Mas Bebes
    Revealing a hidden chapter in the reproductive rights battle saga.
  • No Mas Bebes Revives 1975 Lawsuit
    No Mas Bebes Revives 1975 Lawsuit
    Doc focuses on a class-action lawsuit alleging forced sterilization by L.A. doctors.
  • A Q&A With Judith Helfand
    A Q&A With Judith Helfand
    An interview With Judith Helfand of Chicken & Egg Pictures on Reel Reproductive Justice
  • LA Film Festival's LA MUSE showcase
    LA Film Festival's LA MUSE showcase
    Sterility is the curse chronicled in "No Más Bebés," that unfolds like a science fiction nightmare.
  • Abortion Bill Targets UNC School of Medicine
    Abortion Bill Targets UNC School of Medicine
    UNC may no longer be able to perform or teach medical students how to perform abortions
  • Students Protest NC Abortion Bill
    Students Protest NC Abortion Bill
    Chants of “not the church and not the state, women must decide their fate”
  • Abortion Opponents Go After One Of The Top Medical Schools
    Abortion Opponents Go After One Of The Top Medical Schools
    A well-respected OB-GYN program could be forced to stop teaching abortions
  • Meet Alessandra Zeka & Holen Sabrina Kahn
    Meet Alessandra Zeka & Holen Sabrina Kahn
    Indiewire interviews A Quiet Inquisition filmmakers
  • The Dawn of the Post-Abortion Clinic
    The Dawn of the Post-Abortion Clinic
    The New York Times features Vessel in profile of Dr. Rebecca Gomperts
  • A Documentary With No Easy Answers
    A Documentary With No Easy Answers
    The New Yorker reviews After Tiller
  • Costa Rican Documentary Follows Reproductive Rights Battle
    Costa Rican Documentary Follows Reproductive Rights Battle
    WBEZ’s Weekend Passport explores A Beautiful Sin
  • Setting a TRAP for Abortion Rights
    Setting a TRAP for Abortion Rights
    Trapped director discusses the origins of Trapped in The Daily Beast
  • Bad-Ass Women Make History On A Native American Reservation
    Bad-Ass Women Make History On A Native American Reservation
    Upworthy Profiles a Clip from Young Lakota

A HISTORY OF REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE

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