BEI BEI
2019
Selected Festivals: DocNYC, Shanghai International Film Festival, Asian American Film Festival, CAAM Fest, Tall Grass Film Festival, River Run Film Festival.
The first woman to be prosecuted for murder for attempting suicide while pregnant.
Abandoned by the father of her unborn child and suffering from severe perinatal depression, Bei Bei Shuai attempts suicide while eight months pregnant. She survives the attempt, but her baby, delivered by emergency c-section, dies in her arms three days later. Following devastating personal tragedy, Bei Bei finds herself transformed from a grief stricken mother into a criminal, charged with murder and attempted feticide. Bei Bei is moved to the Marion County Jail where she remains for a year and a half, until her lawyer Linda Pence is able to secure her release on bail. As Bei Bei and Ms. Pence take on the Indiana state justice system, her case begins to gain national attention. Their fight raises important questions about personhood laws, fetal rights, immigrant rights, and the criminalization of the mentally ill.
Attempts to criminalize behavior like hers is part of a broader effort to promote the idea of fetal personhood. - Slate Magazine
Infuriating, deeply moving, thoughtfully considered documentary that confronts a host of ethical, political, and philosophical issues - Andrea Chase, Killer Movie Reviews
***Recommended Heart wrenching political documentary that covers hot button issues with intelligence and compassion - Video Librarian
https://www.kanopy.com/product/bei-bei
The Abortion Pill (2022)
Produced in 1999, updated in 2022, the story of abortion pill’s decades long, controversial history foretells current attempts to ban it.
Beginning with current attempts to ban it, this film draws startling parallels with the battle waged nearly two decades ago to keep RU486 (mifepristone), dubbed “the moral property of women” from the U.S. market. Supporters called the pill the “greatest breakthrough since the birth control pill,” opponents called it a dangerous chemical cocktail. Nearly 30 years after it’s introduction to the U.S., today’s controversies echo the past. The Abortion Pill offers a behind-the-scenes look at the issues and the people who kept the pill out of the United States for over a decade. From it’s invention in France, to it’s off label use in Brazil, to early trials in India, to the first clinic in the U.S. to offer it, the story of the abortion pill foreshadows today’s pitched battles over reproductive rights.
May well change the nature of protests against abortion - Walter Goodman, The NYTimes
***A prescient look at the tactics, arguments and context surrounding the abortion pill. Decades after its invention, what has changed?
PBS National News and Public Affairs Special
https://www.kanopy.com/product/abortion-pill
Young Lakota
Awards: Best Documentary Smithsonian Native American Showcase, Red Nations Film Festival, Cine Las Americas. Honorable Mention: Imaginative. Official Selection: DocNYC, Cucalorus Film Festival, Indigenous Showcase, Santa Fe Film Festival, Big Sky Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival.
Cecilia Fire Thunder- the first female President of the Oglala Sioux tribe, defies a proposed South Dakota law criminalizing all abortions, with no exceptions for rape or incest, by threatening to build a women's clinic on the sovereign territory of the reservation. She ignites a political firestorm that sets off a chain reaction in the lives of three young Lakotas on the Pine Ridge Reservation, forcing each of them to make choices that define who they are and the kind of adults they will become.
"A rare glimpse into Pine Ridge that celebrates the resistance and complexity of the Oglala Lakota who live there."" The Nation
"An intimate look at life "on the Rez," [and] a microcosm of the country's culture wars and the struggle for women's rights... a charismatic Native American woman fighting for her political survival." Sundance Now
"Young Lakota gives an insight into rez life that few others have successfully done, and with a clear voice that speaks, often painfully, of the truth and humanity that is often left on the cutting floor." - Anne White Hat, First Peoples Fund
The film premiered on PBS’s Independent Lens as part of Women and Girls Lead series.
Awards (selected): Sundance Film Festival: Best Cinematography, Audience Award: SWSX, Jury Award: Miami Gay & Lesbian, Jury Award: FullFrame, Audience: Sonoma Film Festival.
Official Selection: Human Rights Watch Film Festival, HotDocs, Tribeca Film Festival, True/False, and many more.
A classic coming-of-age story set in Lubbock, TX, 15 year old Shelby Knox at first sees eye-to-eye with the strict, traditional Christians in her community regarding sexuality's place in her high school. But when she joins a fight over abstinence-only sex education, and a Gay-Straight-Alliance is banned, she confronts her pastor, her parents, and the beliefs she was brought up with. Over the next three years, we join her sometimes funny, often painful, journey of self-discovery that culminates in her emotional, political and religious transformation.
"The movie is a pungent civics lesson on what can and cannot be accomplished by one plucky, idealistic girl." - Critic's Choice, The New York Times
"A terrific documentary" - The New Yorker
"A brilliant examination of a young person on the road to personal awareness." - Hollywood Reporter
"A well-made, often extremely funny coming of age tale." - Film Threat
PBS Point of View Series Season Launch
TO SEE OUR OTHER FILMS: LIVE FREE OR DIE PBS POV Election Special, CODE BLUE New Orleans, Fatherhood USA, Teens & Sex in Europe Go to projector.com/u/incite