Contractions(2024)

Mom's Letter(ru)

The mother and daughter face the question of whether to keep the pregnancy or terminate it. Both are under pressure from relatives, friends, and doctors. Both are going through a difficult decision-making process. Each episode of the artistic part shows the life circumstances and the path that a woman in a crisis situation goes through. In documentary inserts, representatives of various professions (psychologists, lawyers, gynecologists, clergymen) tell how they face the problem of abortion in their lives.

Let It Be Law(es)

In Argentina, a woman dies every week as the result of illegal abortions. In 2018, for the seventh time, a motion supporting legal, secure and free abortion was presented to the national congress of Argentina. The project provoked a fierce debate, revealing a society divided more than ever between the pro-life and freedom to choose positions. Through an assemblage of passionate testimonies, Let It Be Law documents the determination of women fighting bravely to secure the right to physical self-determination, and bears witness to their massive mobilization in the streets of Buenos Aires.

Twenty(en)

Set in a speakeasy in Atlanta, “Twenty” is a feature documentary about fifteen young people making it through 2020. The film is an observational time capsule that lays bare the raw reflections of a group of people surviving a year that will be seared into our generational memory.

Lesser Choices(en)

The bleached palette and home-movie aesthetics of Super 8 footage provide the image track for this testimonial about an illegal abortion in Mexico City in the 1960s, delivered in voiceover by the filmmaker’s mother. In its account of this intimate and disorienting memory, Lesser Choices summons a time of profound uncertainty—a moment from an era without rights—and offers a warning to the present.

Some Things Are Hard To Talk About(en)

Some Things Are Hard To Talk About is a personal documentary about the secrets of abortions in my family over three generations. After I had an abortion I find out that both my mother and my grandmother secretly had abortions. An intricate story of family history, choices and resulting effects uncovers.

getty abortions(de)

What images do we associate with abortion and why? Where do these images and the emotional scripts in our head come from? How do they influence women who (want to) have an abortion, how do they shape the general discussion? Franzis Kabisch’s personal desktop documentary investigates these questions with great precision, clarity and humour (yes, humour, too!).

Eugenika. W imię postępu(pl)

The documentary depicts the birth of eugenics - a pseudo-science created in the 19th century that propounded the theory of perfecting the human race. According to the views of eugenicists, only healthy and creative individuals should reproduce. The film shows how these controversial ideas influenced the intellectual and political elite of the West in the 20th century, including the dictator of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler. Eugenics is a pseudoscience created in the 19th century and treating the improvement of the human race. According to eugenicists, only healthy and creative individuals could procreate, and the procreation of the sick or disabled and racially unworthy (prostitutes, the poor, beggars) should be forbidden. The author of the film posits that modern genetics, the killing of unborn children and euthanasia have their roots in this infamous pseudoscience.

Backroom Troubles(en)

Women talk about the circumstances that drove them to seek illegal abortions and the often traumatic result. Interwoven with historical photographs and newsreel footage, the stories expose how the reality of women's lives were counterposed to what was socially and morally expected of them.

Children of the Decree(ro)

Procreation is the social duty of all fertile women, was the political thinking during the 1960s and 1970s in Romania. In 1966, Ceaucescu issued Decree 770, in which he forbade abortion for all women unless they were over forty or were already taking care of four children. All forms of contraception were totally banned. The New Romanian Man was born. By 1969, the country had a million babies more than the previous average. Romanian society was rapidly changing. By using very interesting archival footage and excerpts from old fiction films and by interviewing famous personalities from that time – gynecologists or mothers who were part of the new society - the director revives this period of tremendous oppression of personal freedom. Many deaths were caused by the mere fact that women, including wives of secret Romanian agents, famous TV presenters, and actresses, had to undergo illegal abortions. Many women were jailed for having them.

Abortion: Stories from North and South(en)

Women have always sought ways to terminate unwanted pregnancies, despite powerful patriarchal structures and systems working against them. This film provides a historical overview of how church, state and the medical establishment have determined policies concerning abortion. From this cross-cultural survey--filmed in Ireland, Japan, Thailand, Peru, Colombia, and Canada--emerges one reality: only a small percentage of the world's women has access to safe, legal operations.

Les trente courageuses de La Réunion, une affaire oubliée(fr)

Libres de choisir(fr)

The film delves into the reality of frontline workers who protect the right to abortion, an unprecedented access. Their stories are accompanied by powerful testimonies from women who have experienced a termination of pregnancy, breaking the silence and isolation.

Hay algo que no he dicho(es)

Three women intimately share how they faced the world and their own family when deciding to terminate a pregnancy.

Homossexualismo, Aborto e Depravação Moral, Discos Voadores e Extraterrestres(pt)

Nothing more than Pastor Silas Malafaia talking about homosexualism, abortion and moral depravity, flying saucers and aliens all at once. For 90 minute straight!

Just Don't Fuck!(fr)

Documentary about the practice of abortion in France in the early seventies, at a time when it was still illegal.

7 Reasons(en)

Evangelist hack Ray Comfort addresses seven questions, reasoning with college students and people on the street about whether such objections are justified. Seeing those who are ardently pro-choice change their minds in moments is both compelling and convincing. What reasons would you give for/against abortion?

A Mile and a Half(en)

Post Dobbs decision the Red River Women’s Clinic was forced to close its doors in Fargo, ND and move a mile and a half across the Red River to Moorhead, MN, into a state with very different reproductive rights legislation, in order to continue providing abortion services as well as other women’s healthcare to a wide region. This is a story of a collective action and resiliency.

Catch Us On The Way Down(en)

A poetic and reflexive documentary approach to reproductive healthcare access in North Carolina, specifically on Indigenous reservations.

The Longest Walk(en)

In the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a filmmaker is forced to confront the past when s/he returns to Kentucky to film the last abortion clinic in their home state – the very clinic where she sought help after she was raped as a girl years before.

A Quiet Inquisition(es)

At a public hospital in Nicaragua, Ob/Gyn Dr. Carla Cerrato must choose between following a law that bans all abortions and endangers her patients or taking a risk and providing the care that she knows can save a woman's life. In 2007, Dr. Cerrato’s daily routine took a detour. The newly elected government of Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist revolutionary who converted to Catholicism to win votes, overturned a 130-year-old law protecting therapeutic abortion. The new law entirely prohibits abortion, even in cases of rape, incest, or when a woman’s life is at stake. As Carla and her colleagues navigate this dangerous dilemma, the impact of this law emerges—illuminating the tangible reality of prohibition against the backdrop of a political, religious, and historically complex national identity. The emotional core of the story—the experiences and situations of the young women and girls who are seeking care—illustrate the ethical implications of one doctor's response.