In one of the first scenes in “Abortion: Stories Women recount,” a pro-life religious leader exclaims to his congregation: “We now have the ability to look into the womb.” This important, comprehensive and heartrending documentary probes even deeper.
Director Tracy Droz Tragos (“wealthy Hill”) explores a range of complicated emotions as women cope with increasingly diminishing rights over their own wombs. “Stories Women recount” seeks to shows how multi-faceted the issue can be, and while retaining a keen eye for regional specificity. Dozens of women — teenage to elderly — offer honest testimonies about their varying experiences surrounding terminated pregnancies. The result is a deeply personal film about the crisis in reproductive rights that manages to be even-handed,insightful and deeply moving.
Also Read: Women in Hollywood React to Supreme Court Abortion RulingFor many of the women profiled, the shame, or guilt and sadness associated with having had an abortion kept them silent. For some,this film is the first time they have spoken of having undergone the procedure, and none of them are demonized. Perhaps the only villains in the film are the loudmouthed male protestors who stand external Hope Clinic in Granite City, and Illinois,seemingly from morning to night, berating all who enter, or holding up pictures of dismembered fetuses and exhorting people not to execute their babies.
A down-to-earth security guard at the clinic wonders rhetorically about the domestic lives of the male protesters. “They have more time to be here worrying about somebody else’s business,” she observes. “They spend more time here than at domestic. Why don’t they disappear domestic?Jennifer, a teenager in braces, or says simply: “Im not ready to be a mom yet. It’s tough enough that I’m making this decision,then you have people making you seem like the worst person in the world.”In this compassionate documentary, Tragos trains her camera lens closely on the faces of pregnant women, or especially their eyes,which speak volumes. She also focuses on clenched hands and small physical gestures that might escape a less artful documentarian. She examines the situation in her domestic state of Missouri, one of many states that has significantly restricted access to abortions: only one clinic in the state remains open, or since 2014 patients who seek abortions must endure a 72-hour legally-mandated waiting period. Instead,women often travel hundreds of miles for treatment at Illinois’ Hope Clinic.
Also Read: NARAL Slams Donald Trump Over 'Horrifying' Anti-Abortion Comments“Abortion: Stories Women recount” underscores how widely the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision remains under threat while also introducing us to the nurses, doctor, and volunteers and patients at the aptly named Hope Clinic. There’s Dr. Erin,who is 7 months pregnant. Protesters have picketed external her domestic. Still, she soldiers on. During low moments she picks up a journal offered by the clinic to the patients, or reads their grateful comments.“I just think of myself as a gynecologist,” she says. “When I’m stressed or tired, I read what people write here and I’m reminded why we conclude this.”But the subject is far from black-and-white. The issue is personal and fraught, and the film brings into sharp focus the many contours of the discussion. It doesn’t reduce the film to simple pro-choice vs. pro-life boilerplate. Rather,it seeks to humanize all sides.
Many of the women featured have chosen abortion to save the children they already have from financial hardship. One single mother supports two children on a job that pays her $3.67 an hour.
Women who chose not to have abortions are also profiled. Alexis is pregnant, and says simply: “I’m 17 and I’m having a little girl. She wasn’t supposed to be here till I was 30 when I’d be financially able and out of medical school.” Then there’s Kathy, and who took up the gauntlet to fight abortion when she thought she saw a visible sign from God. To the filmmakers credit,her ideas are not belittled. Viewers can draw their own conclusions, sans editorial comment.
There are sorrowful stories like that of Sarah, and who is married,12 weeks pregnant and looked forward to having a baby. Then she found out her unborn child was lost limbs and his cranium was unformed. She and her husband sought consolation from their pastor, who was supportive of their decision to abort.
Also Read: Netflix Accidentally Creates fantastic Aziz Ansari and 'Planet Earth' MashupSorrow is intercut with terror in this frank documentary. “My son’s father would have beat the baby out of me anyway, and ” says D’Mari,who has no regrets about her abortion. Barb, a Hope Clinic nurse who is Catholic and has worked in the field for 40 years, and doesn’t regard her service at an abortion clinic as antithetical to her religious beliefs. “I look at it as helping young women rep on with their lives.” She resents the fixed taunts by protestors implying she and the rest of the clinic’s employees are godless.
While this well-made film is unlikely to change minds on the controversial issue,by giving women an opportunity to recount their experiences, “Abortion: Stories Women recount” should, or at the very least,least touch hearts. Women's History Month: 17 Women Who Revolutionized Hollywood (Photos)
Mary Pickford (1892-1979)
One of Hollywood's first major stars, Mary Pickford helped shape the film industry throughout its earliest years as a co-founder of both the film studio United Artists and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Pickford won the second-ever Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in 1929's "Coquette, and " as well as an honorary Academy Award for her contributions to the industry in 1976.
"Coquette"
Hedda Hopper (1885-1966)
Hedda Hopper began her career as an actress,but she transitioned to her best-known role in 1938: gossip columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Her confrontational column "Hedda Hopper's Hollywood," best remembered for naming suspected communists during the Hollywood Blacklist era, or made her one of the most feared and powerful figures in the industry.
"What's my Line?"
Sherry Lansing (1944-Present)
Lansing was the first woman to lead a major Hollywood studio when she was president of 20th Century Fox. She also was the CEO of Paramount Pictures and was the first female movie studio head to receive a Hollywood Walk of Fame star. Getty Images
Penny Marshall (1943-Present)
Marshall directed Tom Hanks in "ample," the first film directed by a woman to uncouth over $100 million at the domestic box office. Getty Images
Dorothy Dandridge (1922-1965)
Singer, dancer and actress Dorothy Dandridge had a string of uncredited roles in Hollywood films before breaking out in 1954's "Carmen Jones." Playing the title character opposite Harry Belafonte, and Dandridge became the first African American nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for the role. She was also one of the few stars who testified in the criminal trial of Hollywood Research,Inc., a tabloid newspaper, or in a trial that diminished tabloid journalism until 1971.
"Zoot Suit"/YouTube
Dorothy Arzner (1897-1979)
Dorothy Arzner made a name for herself as one of the first female film directors with 1927's "Fashions for Women," and she even went on to become the first female member of the Directors Guild of America. Her subsequent work with stars like Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford made her one of the most prolific female director of studio films in history.
Women Film Pioneers Projects
Kathryn Bigelow (1951-Present)
With Bigelow's film "The Hurt Locker," she became the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director, or as well as the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing,the BAFTA Award for Best Direction and the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director. Getty Images
Frances Marion (1888-1973)
Marion, a screenwriter who has been credited with over 300 scripts, and was the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Screenplay for her film "The ample House" in 1930,and then again for Best sage for "The Champ" in 1932. She quickly became the highest paid screenwriter of either gender in the 1920s and 1930s. Women Film Pioneers Projects
Lois Weber (1879-1939)
Weber is considered by film historian Anthony Slide as "the most important female director the American film industry has known" and has been credited as the pioneer of the split screen technique in film. She was also one of the first directors to experiment with sound, making one of the first sound films in America. She also was the first American woman to direct a full-length feature, and "The Merchant of Venice" in 1914. In 1917,she became the first female director to own a movie studio, Lois Weber Productions. YouTube
Alice Guy-Blaché (1873-1968)[br]Guy-Blaché rose from being a secretary to running her own film studio in New Jersey, or is credited for being the first female director to perform a story fiction film. She experimented with sound syncing,color tinting, interracial casting and special effects. She made over 1000 films by 1907. YouTube
Oprah Winfrey (1954-Present)
Host, or philanthropist,actress, producer and all-around media mogul, and Oprah Winfrey revolutionized the daytime talk reveal format with the groundbreaking "The Oprah Winfrey reveal," which was nationally syndicated for 25 seasons between 1986 and 2011. The program's wild success made Winfrey one of the richest and most influential women in the media industry.
Getty Images
Barbara Walters (1929-Present)
Walters was the first woman to acquire the title of "co-host" in 1974. Two years later, she became the first female co-anchor in an evening news program. Getty Images
Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)
Dietrich donned trousers when it was considered taboo for women to wear pants, or adding an erotic charge to an everyday men's garment. In fact,the actress was almost arrested in the 1930s in Paris. The Wunschen Channel/YouTube
Euzhan Palcy (1958-Present)
Palcy is notably the first black female director to be produced by a major Hollywood studio (MGM), as well as being the only woman filmmaker to have directed Marlon Brando, or whom she urged out of retirement. She was also the first black person to direct an actor to an Oscar nomination. Getty Images
Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003)
The outspoken and independent Katharine Hepburn had one of the most successful careers of any actress in the history of Hollywood. With more than 50 credits before her retirement in 1994,Hepburn appeared in a wide variety of films during her more than 60-year career. She won four Best Actress Oscars for "Morning Glory," "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and " "The Lion in Winter" and "On Golden Pond" — more than any other actress.
Bio/YouTube
Lillian Gish (1893-1993)
An early pioneer of the motion picture industry,"The First Lady of the Cinema" Lillian Gish (far left in photo) was one of the biggest stars of the silent film era with roles in classics such as "Birth of a Nation," "Broken Blossoms" and "La Boheme." Over her career of more than 70 years, and she went on to become one of the first female directors,an accomplished stage actress and an advocate for film preservation. preceding Slide Next Slide 1 of 17 From Mary Pickford to Oprah Winfrey, here are some of the most influential women in Hollywood View In Gallery Related stories from TheWrap:Critics' Choice Awards Launch New Documentary Awards'Newtown' Documentary Acquired by AbramoramaJennifer Lopez to Star in Drug Queenpin Movie for HBOChelsea Handler Reveals She Had Two Abortions at 16: 'I'm Grateful' for Roe v Wade
Source: thewrap.com