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