Live Free or Die
A small town New Hampshire OBGYN, Dr Wayne Goldner finds himself targeted as an abortionist and dismissed from teaching sex education at a local school when he challenges a Catholic hospital merger that eviscerates the area’s abortion services.
Set against the backdrop of Goldner's own community, the film captures a year of daily struggles and moral conflict. In the documentary, Wayne challenges a Catholic hospital merger that greatly reduces the area's services. When a patient who is 14 weeks pregnant is barred from the hospital operating room, Goldner is forced to send her on an 80-mile cab ride for an emergency abortion. Goldner's greatest conflict, as depicted in the film, is reducing the tension caused by his presence in the community.
“Three stars. A particlarly relevant program…this is recommended as a solid supplement to more straightforwardly informationally pro-choice materials.”
– K. Glaser, Video Librarian
“Strongly Recommended. A compelling documentary.”
– Jeff Dick Booklets
The Abortion Pill
1997
The Abortion Pill examines the pros and cons of a drug that can end a pregnancy without surgery.
The Abortion Pill tells the extraordinary story of why, as we approach the year 2000, the pill is still not available, blocked by a potent mix of business, politics and ethics. Supporters consider the pill the “greatest breakthrough since the birth control pill” because it is the first in a generation of drugs that can stop a pregnancy. But opponents call the combination of the two drugs a chemical cocktail that can create dangerous, unknown side effects.The Abortion Pill offers a behind-the-scenes look at the issues and the people that have kept this pill out of the United States for over a decade. Along the way we meet the politicians, pundits, organizers, and the ordinary men and women who have been swept into the controversy. We end the story with a look to the future and question whether this new technology, once in place, will end the abortion wars in America.
Broadcast Nationally on PBS
Chicago International Film Festival’s annual award for a social/political documentary
BEI BEI
2019
Bei Bei Shuai, a Chinese Immigrant living in Indiana, is charged with murder and feticide. Her Crime? 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.
To learn more about the film please visit http://beibeifilm.com/
Young Lakota
2013
South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation is no stranger to strife and heartbreak, stark realities and inspired idealism. In Young Lakota, we are brought directly into the emotional and often uncertain journey of Sunny Clifford, her twin sister Serena and their politically ambitious friend Brandon Ferguson, who all share the desire to make a difference for themselves and their community.
Young Lakota chronicles the life defining choices faced by three young people as they try to forge a better future for their tribe while securing their own well being. The film premiered on PBS’s Independent Lens on November 25th 2013, during Native American Heritage Month, as part of the Women and Girls Lead Initiative. Over a million viewers tuned in.
Young Lakota is available to stream on Kanopy, https://www.kanopy.com/product/young-lakota.
When Shelby Knox joins a campaign for better sex education in high schools, she begins to question her deeply conservative Southern Baptist upbringing.
The Education of Shelby Knox is a coming of age story about a teenage girl who joins a campaign for comprehensive sex education in the high schools of Lubbock, Texas. As Shelby is swept into the fight, she begins to question her deeply conservative Southern Baptist upbringing; when the campaign broadens to include a fight for a gay-straight alliance, Shelby confronts her family and her pastor, in the end declaring herself a feminist and a liberal Christian.
The Education of Shelby Knox aired on the Point of View series on PBS on June 21, 2005