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abortion

Saint Frances – Speaking the Unspeakable

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“You’re the adult, right?”

Adulthood is something that Bridget (Kelly O’Sullivan, who wrote the script) hasn’t quite mastered, in spite of her thirty-four years. She’s just kind of drifting along with no great ambition or direction. When she gets a summer job as a nanny for six year old Frances (Ramona Edith-Williams), she’s a bit over her head. But Franny’s mothers need help. Franny’s biological mother Annie (Lily Mojekwu) has to work; her other mother Maya (Charin Alvarez) is battling postpartum depression after the birth of Franny’s new brother. Franny is precocious and a bit manipulative. She knows how to push boundaries and buttons. It is a rocky start for the summer job.

All of this becomes more complicated when she becomes pregnant. She has only recently started her relationship with Jace (Max Lipshitz), but he is certainly supportive of her, whatever she decides. He is there for her when she goes through her abortion, and tries his best to help her recover. But Bridget isn’t in the mood to talk about it. There are a lot of things people don’t talk about in this story—especially things having to do with women’s bodies.

I should mention the blood. This isn’t a horror movie, but there is certainly blood—mostly menstrual blood and bleeding in the aftermath of the abortion. The frequency with which blood is involved with the story may be seen as some as off-putting, perhaps because it seems inappropriate or maybe just “gross”. Blood serves as an emotional stand in for all of the ways women are taught to be ashamed of their bodies. In an open letter, Kelly O’Sullivan says, “Saint Frances endeavors to normalize and de-stigmatize those parts of womanhood that we’re encouraged not to talk about.” Those things women are often taught to avoid talking about include abortion, menstruation, and postpartum depression. You can add to that the disapprobation many women experience when breastfeeding in public. (Which is also portrayed in this film.)

All of that may give the impression that this can be put into a box labelled “Women’s Movie”. The film undoubtedly has a woman’s voice, but it cannot be so easily categorized. While it is clearly woman-centric, the underlying emotional issues it explores are not limited to gender. And the characters while mostly women are easy for viewers of either sex to identify with.

The film also carries with it a patina of religion. Annie and Maya are raising their children as Catholic. Bridget describes herself as a “fallen” Catholic. The church and discussions of faith (gee, there’s something else we’re not supposed to talk about) pop up in small ways. This eventually leads to a wonderful scene in an empty church where Franny has gone to the confessional, but is sitting in the priest’s seat. When Bridget comes, they play a little bit of confession, which allows Bridget to begin to come to terms with her own feelings—not just about her abortion, but about how her life has progressed (or not).

The concept of confession (whether religious or not) is central to this story. It is all the things that are never confessed—that no one is willing to talk about—that make us too ashamed to be honest even with those we love—that create the barriers that can prevent us from finding fulfilment in our lives. That is one of the reasons that confession plays a part in the religious life. It may or may not take place in a religious setting, but to speak one’s faults, sorrows, and pains can allow healing to begin. But when all those problems are held inside us, they never go away on their own. They just continue to grow until we can no longer handle them.

Saint Frances is available on VOD

Photos courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories

Never Rarely Sometimes Always – Desperate Journey

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Never Rarely Sometimes Always has an interesting prelude at a school talent show in which we hear the main character Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) singing a song about coercive love. During the song, a student yells out the word “slut”. That in itself is a form of coercion and violence. Throughout the film Autumn must deal not with such blatant assaults, but with far more subtle fights against a system that can be oppressive to women.

Sidney Flanigan stars as Autumn in NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS, a Focus Features release. Credit : Courtesy of Focus Features

Autumn is a quiet, we might even say brooding, teenager in small town Pennsylvania. She goes to the local women’s clinic for a pregnancy test and learns she is pregnant. This clinic focuses on continuing pregnancies and has an anti-abortion stance. Autumn’s on line research tells her she cannot get an abortion in Pennsylvania without parental consent. She’s unsure what to do. When her cousin and best friend Skylar (Talia Ryder) learns of the situation, she takes charge. They get some money together, pack a suitcase and catch a morning bus to New York City. But when Autumn gets to the clinic in Brooklyn, she learns that they cannot do the procedure there, so she must go to the Manhattan in the morning. Thus begin 2 days and nights of surviving on the streets of New York City (always toting that suitcase along).

Talia Ryder stars as Skylar in NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features

Neither of the young women is prepared for this kind of journey, financially, emotionally, or experientially. Skylar is quick to come up with options along the way, but they are never easy. Autumn is trying to hold herself together by going deeper and deeper into herself.

That suitcase I mentioned is a constant presence and a burden—perhaps a bit of a metaphor for what it is like to be pregnant and in need.  The people the two encounter along the way are often indifferent, and at times somewhat exploitive. But there are touches of kindness from time to time that remind us of how important such moments can be.

Sidney Flanigan stars as Autumn in NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features

One of those times is when a counselor at the Manhattan clinic goes through questions about Autumn’s sexual history. We may want to stand in judgement of some of her answers (cf., the jerk who yells out during her song), but the softness of the counselor’s response (always, “okay”) leaves us open to accept Autumn’s pain. Our initial judgement may give way to considerations that she is not wanton or irresponsible, but a victim. The story of her pregnancy is never explained, but in reality, her decisions are her own and do not need our approval.

As I watched, I was reminded of a much different abortion-centered film, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days from Romanian director Cristian Mungiu. That film also focused on two women on a journey to obtain an abortion. That film was much darker (both visually and in tone). It showed a world in which abortion was prohibited and the back-alley variety was the only option. In Never Rarely Sometimes Always, writer/director Eliza Hittman puts the women in search of a legal abortion. The film is visually brighter, but emotionally, it carries the same darkness.

Whereas 4 Months… deals with a society where all abortions were forbidden, Rarely… is set in a world where abortion is legal, but constraints on the availability may make the option of ending a pregnancy a challenge. Such restrictions add to the pain and anguish a woman faces in making such a difficult decision. For many, journeys such as Autumn and Skylar’s become the only available options.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always had a theatrical release this spring, but because of theater closures it moved to a streaming release. It can be rented on Amazon Prime for $19.99.

The God Cells: Good For What Ails You?

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godcells2The God Cells raises some interesting questions—some by what is said, some by what is not said. The combination of those questions leaves me very torn as to how to approach this documentary. On the one hand, it shares information for a medical treatment that could provide great benefit to people suffering many terrible illnesses. On the other hand, I can’t say it is not an infomercial for snake oil.

The film is a very one-sided look at the medical use of fetal stem cells. (Fetal stem cells are harvested from aborted fetuses, usually at about eight to ten weeks. Obviously their use—even if effective—is very controversial. They differ somewhat from adult stem cells and umbilical cord stem cells (neither of which is controversial), and embryonic stem cells (also controversial because they are harvested from embryos a few days old). The film offers some rudimentary explanation of stem cell treatments and the various short-comings for the other types of stem cells. But most of the film is testimonials by patients who have gone to Mexico for these treatments.

Those testimonials are truly impressive. The term “miracle” does not seem out of place. Among the diseases treated are cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, lymphatic leukemia, lupus, Parkinson’s, and rheumatoid arthritis. (There are other diseases alluded to but these are the main ones we hear about firsthand.) The patients we meet who have had this treatment tell amazing stories of not just stopping the progression of their diseases, but of major improvement—to the point of leading normal and active lives. It should be noted that these patients are all the clients of a single doctor (who the film notes, with a bit of spin applied, has lost his license.)

So the first question raised is why is this treatment not readily available? There is some information on the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine as one of the few places doing research on this kind of stem cells. It also points out the many hoops stem cell treatments face with the FDA before they can be approved. However, there is also a cynical streak to the film that points out that because fetal stem cells wouldn’t be patentable, they represent a cure that would not be profitable for drug companies. I’m not above being cynical about Big Pharma, but I also think there are more issues involved than just that.

One of the biggest questions I had in watching the film is where are all the patients who don’t have miraculous stories to tell? How many people has this doctor treated and what percentage of them have benefited? Are there some who got worse?

The film also does not touch on any of the moral and ethical questions involved in such treatment. There are reasons, some religious, that fetal stem cells are controversial. It could well be argued that the benefits must be considered, but so too should the qualms that many people would have about the practice. And what of the ethics of going across the border to Tijuana to provide a treatment not allowed here, and at a cost of $30,000 (not covered by any insurance) that is only available to those with some means?

It may well be that this is a treatment that deserves to be better understood. The stories we hear are very persuasive. If I were as ill as some of those in the film, I might be hopeless enough to seek out this treatment. But this is still a situation that seems to be very open to the abuse of sick, desperate people. If the film encourages people to seek more inquiry into the treatment by the scientific community, it will be a good thing. If it merely sends people seeking their own miracle to pay their money for their chance (with unknown odds) at a better life, then there are too many questions outstanding.