TAKING PLACE AUGUST 12-16, 2020, THE FESTIVAL AIMS TO HELP EDUCATE AMERICANS ON ISSUES SURROUNDING REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE
ALL TICKET PROCEEDS FOR THE FESTIVAL WILL BE EVENLY SPLIT AND DONATED TO FIVE WOMEN’S HEALTH NON-PROFIT BENEFICIARIES
LOS ANGELES, CA (July 22, 2020) - rePRO by mama.film, a new five day virtual film festival dedicated to exploring women's reproductive healthcare, awareness, advocacy and bodily integrity in America, has announced its lineup for the inaugural festival which will take place online from August 12-16, 2020. The lineup of films and conversations, which will be open to anyone in the US, includes documentaries and narratives dealing with women’s rights, endometriosis, illegal sterilization, access to abortion, and reproductive justice for women of color, among other topics. The program was announced today by the festival’s founders, Lela Meadow-Conner, Mallory Martin and Debby Samples.
The festival will host five days of features, short films and themed-conversations focused on a range of topics including healthcare access, fertility, pregnancy, sexual education, abortion, and issues related to the gender spectrum. Each conversation will include call-to-action messaging on how people can get involved in a corresponding initiative or topic. The conversations, designed to spotlight the creators who dare to tell stories about women’s reproductive rights, and to showcase courageous advocators, will be available online for free globally.
All feature films playing the festival are directed by women, and all filmmakers, including shorts filmmakers, are being paid to screen their films. The pay-what-you-can film ticket proceeds for films at the festival will be converted to donations to be split evenly among five beneficiary non-profit organizations - SisterSong, Endometriosis Foundation of America, Center for Reproductive Rights, URGE and Trust Women.
The features playing at the festival will include the opening night film BELLY OF THE BEAST by director Erika Cohn, which examines illegal sterilization of prisoners and other crimes within the US women’s prison system, Shannon Cohn’s eye-opening endometriosis documentary ENDO WHAT?, Jo Ardinger’s pregency policing movement film PERSONHOOD, Maria Finitzo’s female sexual desire documentary THE DILEMMA OF DESIRE, and Jan Haaken’s OUR BODIES OUR DOCTORS, which chronicles the lives of several abortion providers, and the difficulties they face in their daily lives.
With the rising threat to American women's autonomy over their own bodies, the festival’s main goal is to lift up the voices of those who are advocating for women's reproductive justice during this vital election year, as well as encourage active participation and establish a more equitable future for generations to come.
The festival, a project of the Wichita & Cleveland based non-profit film series mama.film, is founded by Mallory Martin, Lela Meadow-Conner and Debby Samples. These women collectively have decades of experience working in the film festival industry, and have each also experienced the joys and challenges of motherhood.
“Story-driven film is a hugely important tool in modern culture - it helps us define the world we live in and creates empathy for those we relate to, and those we don’t understand,” said the mama.film founders. “The three of us have young children and want them to grow up in a world where they and their peers have access to fundamental reproductive rights and freedoms, and we will advocate for that in any way we can, especially before this November’s election. Without conversation and awareness, we cannot nurture equality and change, and we cannot expect future generations to do so. Right now, this is a conversation without an expiration date. But through the incredible work of so many activists we have met along the rePRO journey, we are confident someday the fight will end.”
The festival will also present a special "ChangemakeHER" Award, to recognize an exceptional individual who has provided significant contribution towards the fight for women’s reproductive healthcare, including education, awareness and activism. This recipient will be announced at a later date.
Tickets are on sale as of today (July 22nd) online at repromamafilm.org. Tickets are all pay-what-you-can ($5, $10 or $15) with a limited number of complimentary vouchers available upon request to ensure access for all.
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The full lineup for the rePRO Film Festival includes:
