In the spring of 1972, seven members of the Jane Collective, an underground service in Chicago, were arrested for providing illegal abortions to women in need. The collective had been founded by Heather Booth in 1965, when a friend in need of the procedure was nearly suicidal. “Pregnant? Don’t want to be? Call Jane,” read ads placed in the underground press, offering a counseling service mostly for low-income women and women of color. The Janes would refer women to abortion providers, sometimes performing abortions themselves. After the organization was discovered by the Chicago police, the seven Jane members’ lawyer successfully delayed the case’s court proceedings until the January 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which struck down federal and state abortion bans in the United States.
The release of Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ Oscar-shortlisted documentary The Janes also aligned with a major abortion ruling: Just weeks after its June 8 premiere on HBO,...
The release of Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ Oscar-shortlisted documentary The Janes also aligned with a major abortion ruling: Just weeks after its June 8 premiere on HBO,...
- 1/10/2023
- by Tyler Coates
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Sundance Institute has announced the lineup for the 2023 Sundance Film Festival Beyond Film conversations, all of which are open to the public. Made up of three series called Power of Story, Cinema Café, and The Big Conversation, Beyond Film rounds out the festival experience, providing a place for the community to engage through artist conversations, filmmaker panels, and audience discourse. Beyond Film will take place in-person from January 19–23, with the Beyond Film offerings becoming available to audiences across the country on the online festival platform starting January 24.
Beyond Film speakers will include talent from festival films, such as Barry Jenkins, Dakota Johnson, Jonathan Majors (“Magazine Dreams”), Randall Park (“Shortcomings”), Ruth Reichl (“Food and Country”), and Adrian Tomine (“Shortcomings”), as well as compelling speakers including Dr. Orna Guralnik, Marlee Matlin, and Lisa Taddeo.
More details about the lineup are below, with language courtesy of the festival.
Power Of Story
Power of Story: On Intimacy
Sunday,...
Beyond Film speakers will include talent from festival films, such as Barry Jenkins, Dakota Johnson, Jonathan Majors (“Magazine Dreams”), Randall Park (“Shortcomings”), Ruth Reichl (“Food and Country”), and Adrian Tomine (“Shortcomings”), as well as compelling speakers including Dr. Orna Guralnik, Marlee Matlin, and Lisa Taddeo.
More details about the lineup are below, with language courtesy of the festival.
Power Of Story
Power of Story: On Intimacy
Sunday,...
- 1/6/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The Sundance Institute has unveiled its lineups of Beyond Film and Partner Programming for the hybrid 2023 Sundance Film Festival, the in-person component of which is taking place in Utah from January 19-29.
The Beyond Film program consists of chats with notable creatives across three separate series: Power of Story, Cinema Café, and The Big Conversation. Some of the artists taking part this year include Barry Jenkins, Dakota Johnson, Jonathan Majors, Randall Park, Marlee Matlin and W. Kamau Bell — most of whom have films premiering at Sundance 2023. The program will take place in-person from January 19–23, with Beyond Film offerings to become available via the online Festival Platform starting on the 24th.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ryan Coogler (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and Oscar-winning Summer of Soul helmer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson are just a couple of the A-listers set for panels to be put on by Festival partners between the 19th and the 24th...
The Beyond Film program consists of chats with notable creatives across three separate series: Power of Story, Cinema Café, and The Big Conversation. Some of the artists taking part this year include Barry Jenkins, Dakota Johnson, Jonathan Majors, Randall Park, Marlee Matlin and W. Kamau Bell — most of whom have films premiering at Sundance 2023. The program will take place in-person from January 19–23, with Beyond Film offerings to become available via the online Festival Platform starting on the 24th.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ryan Coogler (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and Oscar-winning Summer of Soul helmer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson are just a couple of the A-listers set for panels to be put on by Festival partners between the 19th and the 24th...
- 1/6/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ (Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures © 2022 20th Century Studios)
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists* spread the wealth, awarding The Banshees of Inisherin, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Women Talking three wins each. The AWFJ Eda Awards recognize the best in films overall, as well as films driven by women.
“We are particularly proud that this year’s member-determined roster of nominees included a goodly number of female contenders in non-gender specific categories. and that we have female winners in those categories, as well, including Sarah Polley who receives the Eda Award for Best Director for the multi-nominated and awarded Women Talking,” said Jennifer Merin, President of the 95 members AWFJ. “We hope to see similar results at this year’s Oscars and various guild awards. as well as with other critics awards groups.”
In 2022, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists...
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists* spread the wealth, awarding The Banshees of Inisherin, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and Women Talking three wins each. The AWFJ Eda Awards recognize the best in films overall, as well as films driven by women.
“We are particularly proud that this year’s member-determined roster of nominees included a goodly number of female contenders in non-gender specific categories. and that we have female winners in those categories, as well, including Sarah Polley who receives the Eda Award for Best Director for the multi-nominated and awarded Women Talking,” said Jennifer Merin, President of the 95 members AWFJ. “We hope to see similar results at this year’s Oscars and various guild awards. as well as with other critics awards groups.”
In 2022, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists...
- 1/5/2023
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
On Dec. 21, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled its shortlists for the 2023 Oscars in 10 categories, which included advancing 15 documentary features to the next round. A total of 144 documentary features this year were eligible, and those that moved on include All That Breathes, Fire of Love and Moonage Daydream.
Among the more surprising omissions was Mars Rover doc Good Night Oppy. Members of the documentary branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees for documentary feature as well as documentary short (15 films were shortlisted from 98 qualified shorts).
A list of the 15 documentaries on this year’s Oscars shortlist follows.
All That Breathes
Winner of the Cannes Golden Eye and Sundance Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema Documentary), All That Breathes follows two brothers in New Delhi racing to save a bird falling from the sky. Shaunak Sen directs the HBO documentary. It premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival,...
Among the more surprising omissions was Mars Rover doc Good Night Oppy. Members of the documentary branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees for documentary feature as well as documentary short (15 films were shortlisted from 98 qualified shorts).
A list of the 15 documentaries on this year’s Oscars shortlist follows.
All That Breathes
Winner of the Cannes Golden Eye and Sundance Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema Documentary), All That Breathes follows two brothers in New Delhi racing to save a bird falling from the sky. Shaunak Sen directs the HBO documentary. It premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival,...
- 1/5/2023
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“The Janes” co-director Emma Pildes, original “Jane” Judith Arcana and abortion clinic owner DeShawn Taylor M.D. discussed the status of abortion rights and how the story of a 1970s underground provider network made its way to the screen, as part of TheWrap’s Power Women Summit 2022 on Wednesday.
“I mean, the timing was pretty remarkable and unfortunate,” Pildes told moderator Jodie Sweetin of the film’s premiere, which coincided with the leak of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“We just kind of felt like, as filmmakers, it was about doing what you can. That’s what activism is,” the co-director added.
Sweetin, an actress and activist herself, asked Arcana what she carries with her from her experiences as a Jane.
Also Read:
‘Luckiest Girl Alive’ Author Jessica Knoll Encourages Aspiring Adapters to ‘Be the Squeaky Wheel’ (Video)
Before responding, Arcana said that she used...
“I mean, the timing was pretty remarkable and unfortunate,” Pildes told moderator Jodie Sweetin of the film’s premiere, which coincided with the leak of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“We just kind of felt like, as filmmakers, it was about doing what you can. That’s what activism is,” the co-director added.
Sweetin, an actress and activist herself, asked Arcana what she carries with her from her experiences as a Jane.
Also Read:
‘Luckiest Girl Alive’ Author Jessica Knoll Encourages Aspiring Adapters to ‘Be the Squeaky Wheel’ (Video)
Before responding, Arcana said that she used...
- 12/14/2022
- by Harper Lambert
- The Wrap
For years HBO Documentary Films, under the stewardship of Sheila Nevins, dominated the Oscars, racking up nominations and wins left and right. But since her departure in 2018 it has faced an Oscar dry spell, at least in the documentary feature category. All that could change this year, in a major way.
HBO Documentary Films has roared into awards season with perhaps the strongest slate of contenders of any distributor, beginning with Oscar favorite All That Breathes (with theatrical partners Sideshow and Submarine Deluxe). Shaunak Sen’s lyrical film about two brothers in Delhi, India who rescue and rehabilitate injured birds of prey won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance and followed that up by winning the L’Œil d’or prize for documentary at Cannes. All That Breathes has kept the momentum going, taking top honors at the IDA Documentary Awards on Saturday and a nomination from the Cinema Eye Honors.
HBO Documentary Films has roared into awards season with perhaps the strongest slate of contenders of any distributor, beginning with Oscar favorite All That Breathes (with theatrical partners Sideshow and Submarine Deluxe). Shaunak Sen’s lyrical film about two brothers in Delhi, India who rescue and rehabilitate injured birds of prey won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance and followed that up by winning the L’Œil d’or prize for documentary at Cannes. All That Breathes has kept the momentum going, taking top honors at the IDA Documentary Awards on Saturday and a nomination from the Cinema Eye Honors.
- 12/11/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Shortly after Donald Trump became president of the United States in January 2017, he began stacking federal courts with conservative judges. Realizing what was at stake, the team behind HBO Documentary Films’ abortion documentary The Janes began crafting a story to remind the audience what happened 50 years ago when women didn’t have access to safe and legal abortions.
“It felt like the time that we needed to lift this story up,” filmmaker Emma Pildes said during a conversation at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary event. Pildes co-directed the pic with Tia Lessin.
Related: The Contenders Documentary – Deadline’s Full Coverage
Launched in Chicago in the late 1960s and early ’70s, The Jane Collective, or simply Jane, was an underground network formed to help women obtain safe abortions when the procedure was illegal.
Pildes noted that before Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion, women determined to terminate pregnancies...
“It felt like the time that we needed to lift this story up,” filmmaker Emma Pildes said during a conversation at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary event. Pildes co-directed the pic with Tia Lessin.
Related: The Contenders Documentary – Deadline’s Full Coverage
Launched in Chicago in the late 1960s and early ’70s, The Jane Collective, or simply Jane, was an underground network formed to help women obtain safe abortions when the procedure was illegal.
Pildes noted that before Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion, women determined to terminate pregnancies...
- 12/4/2022
- by Anita Bennett
- Deadline Film + TV
Deadline’s Contenders Film: Documentary awards-season event kicks off Sunday at 8 a.m. Pt and promises to open up distant lands and even a distant planet—no passport required.
Click her to register for and watch today’s Contenders livestream.
The terrain covered by the cast and creatives from our 20 participating films astonishes with its variety and range: an enclave of Delhi, India in All That Breathes, a remote section of Paraguay in Eami, and possibly an even more remote outpost of the Brazilian rainforest in Wildcat. Moscow is the ultimate destination of Navalny, the documentary about Russia’s imprisoned and poisoned opposition leader, and Descendant takes us to a neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama settled by survivors of the last slave ship known to have navigated U.S. waters.
About 5,600 miles separate Moscow from Mobile, mere inches apart compared to the far-flung rendezvous point of Good Night Oppy, about NASA...
Click her to register for and watch today’s Contenders livestream.
The terrain covered by the cast and creatives from our 20 participating films astonishes with its variety and range: an enclave of Delhi, India in All That Breathes, a remote section of Paraguay in Eami, and possibly an even more remote outpost of the Brazilian rainforest in Wildcat. Moscow is the ultimate destination of Navalny, the documentary about Russia’s imprisoned and poisoned opposition leader, and Descendant takes us to a neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama settled by survivors of the last slave ship known to have navigated U.S. waters.
About 5,600 miles separate Moscow from Mobile, mere inches apart compared to the far-flung rendezvous point of Good Night Oppy, about NASA...
- 12/4/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
We now have a clear picture of where the Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature is headed. With Friday’s announcement of the International Documentary Association‘s (IDA) nominations, all four of the major nonfiction precursors have now weighed in. Cinema Eye Honors (Ceh) announced their nominees on November 10, Doc NYC gave us their annual shortlist on October 18, and the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards (Ccda) presented their slate on October 17. Only two films were recognized for top honors by all four of those groups: Sara Dosa‘s “Fire of Love” and Daniel Roher‘s “Navalny.”
Before we get into the full state of this year’s race, let’s understand why these four groups are so important. First off, in the last five years only one film — “The Mole Agent” (2020)– was nominated for the Academy Award without recognition from at least one of these groups first. Of the other 24 nominated films,...
Before we get into the full state of this year’s race, let’s understand why these four groups are so important. First off, in the last five years only one film — “The Mole Agent” (2020)– was nominated for the Academy Award without recognition from at least one of these groups first. Of the other 24 nominated films,...
- 11/13/2022
- by John Benutty
- Gold Derby
Doc NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, announced the titles of its annual Short List: Features program on October 18. The Short List represents a selection of films the festival’s programming team considers to be among the year’s top contenders for the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
Launched in 2012, the Doc NYC Short List: Features selection has included the eventual Oscar winner nine of the last 10 times, including last year’s champ “Summer of Soul.” The festival also boasts that they screened 44 of the last 50 Oscar-nominated features and in 2021 screened 11 of the 15 films that were named to the academy’s pre-nominees shortlist.
Among this year’s selection is a documentary everyone is watching closely, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” by Oscar winner for “Citizenfour” Laura Poitras. That film became only the second documentary to ever win the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival and then screened...
Launched in 2012, the Doc NYC Short List: Features selection has included the eventual Oscar winner nine of the last 10 times, including last year’s champ “Summer of Soul.” The festival also boasts that they screened 44 of the last 50 Oscar-nominated features and in 2021 screened 11 of the 15 films that were named to the academy’s pre-nominees shortlist.
Among this year’s selection is a documentary everyone is watching closely, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” by Oscar winner for “Citizenfour” Laura Poitras. That film became only the second documentary to ever win the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival and then screened...
- 10/18/2022
- by John Benutty
- Gold Derby
Click here to read the full article.
Actress and Honest Company founder Jessica Alba, Crazy Rich Asians star and author Constance Wu, and Rutherford Falls writer and showrunner Sierra Teller Ornelas are among the lineup for the 2022 Makers Conference.
Additional entertainment industry talent set to appear at the global leadership event are Ms. Marvel executive producer Sana Amanat and star Iman Vellani, The Janes directors Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes, and former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Player and inspiration behind Amazon Prime Video’s A League of Their Own Maybelle Blair.
The initial list of guests, speakers and leaders set to appear at the eighth edition of the annual conference produced by Yahoo media brand Makers — a community focused on women’s equity in the workplace and beyond — was announced Monday. The conference, which is slated to return to the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California,...
Actress and Honest Company founder Jessica Alba, Crazy Rich Asians star and author Constance Wu, and Rutherford Falls writer and showrunner Sierra Teller Ornelas are among the lineup for the 2022 Makers Conference.
Additional entertainment industry talent set to appear at the global leadership event are Ms. Marvel executive producer Sana Amanat and star Iman Vellani, The Janes directors Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes, and former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Player and inspiration behind Amazon Prime Video’s A League of Their Own Maybelle Blair.
The initial list of guests, speakers and leaders set to appear at the eighth edition of the annual conference produced by Yahoo media brand Makers — a community focused on women’s equity in the workplace and beyond — was announced Monday. The conference, which is slated to return to the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California,...
- 9/19/2022
- by Abbey White
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The panels have been announced for the 2022 Gotham Week Conference, the first time the event will occur in person since 2019. The panelists include Jenny Slate and other team members behind Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, director of Bodies Bodies Bodies Halina Reijn and co-directors of The Janes Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes. Slate, who voiced the title character and co-wrote the script, will be joined by Marcel director Dean Fleischer Camp and animation director Kirsten Lepore. Other panelists at the 2022 Gotham Week Conference include Adamma and Adanne Ebo, the respective director and producer of Honk For Jesus. […]
The post Gotham Week 2022 to Feature Panels with Jenny Slate and Directors of Bodies Bodies Bodies and The Janes first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Gotham Week 2022 to Feature Panels with Jenny Slate and Directors of Bodies Bodies Bodies and The Janes first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 8/19/2022
- by Natalia Keogan
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Click here to read the full article.
The 2022 Gotham Week Conference will feature panels with Jenny Slate and more of the team behind Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Bodies Bodies Bodies director Halina Reijn and the directors of timely abortion documentary The Janes, Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes.
Slate, the co-writer of the film and voice of Marcel, will be joined by writer and director Dean Fleischer Camp and animation director Kirsten Lepore to discuss developing IP.
Other public panels at the New York event, returning in person for the first time since 2019, will feature panels with the director and producer, respectively, of Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul, Adamma and Adanne Ebo, and Nanny director Nikyatu Jusu and producer Nikkia Moulterie. Both Honk for Jesus and Nanny are alums of the 2019 Gotham Week Project Market.
The Conference will also feature conversations about incorporating sustainable practices into filmmaking in partnership with The Green Shot,...
The 2022 Gotham Week Conference will feature panels with Jenny Slate and more of the team behind Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Bodies Bodies Bodies director Halina Reijn and the directors of timely abortion documentary The Janes, Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes.
Slate, the co-writer of the film and voice of Marcel, will be joined by writer and director Dean Fleischer Camp and animation director Kirsten Lepore to discuss developing IP.
Other public panels at the New York event, returning in person for the first time since 2019, will feature panels with the director and producer, respectively, of Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul, Adamma and Adanne Ebo, and Nanny director Nikyatu Jusu and producer Nikkia Moulterie. Both Honk for Jesus and Nanny are alums of the 2019 Gotham Week Project Market.
The Conference will also feature conversations about incorporating sustainable practices into filmmaking in partnership with The Green Shot,...
- 8/19/2022
- by Hilary Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Back in 2016, after Donald Trump was elected president, documentary producers Emma Pildes and her brother Daniel Arcana had a bad feeling about Trump packing the Supreme Court. The time was right, they decided, to develop a movie about his mother Judith’s late 1960s involvement in Chicago with the underground Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation, known as The Janes, which provided abortions for some 11,000 women between 1969 and 1972. Seven of the leaders were arrested and were facing a possible 110 years in prison — until the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision came down.
After Brett Kavanaugh was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2018, Pildes approached Oscar-nominated documentarian Tia Lessin (“Trouble the Water”) to co-direct; HBO Documentary Films agreed to back “The Janes,” which started filming in 2019 and debuted at Sundance 2022. It’s currently streaming on HBO Max and Hulu.
Slowly but surely the filmmakers found Janes willing to speak on the record.
After Brett Kavanaugh was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2018, Pildes approached Oscar-nominated documentarian Tia Lessin (“Trouble the Water”) to co-direct; HBO Documentary Films agreed to back “The Janes,” which started filming in 2019 and debuted at Sundance 2022. It’s currently streaming on HBO Max and Hulu.
Slowly but surely the filmmakers found Janes willing to speak on the record.
- 6/28/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Filmmakers Ricki Stern and Anne Lundberg have seen this day coming. For a long time.
Their 2108 Netflix documentary Reversing Roe examined how right-wing activists, politicians and jurists were steadily chipping away at abortion rights across the country, with the goal of eventually overturning Roe v. Wade. Today it happened, in a 6-3 Supreme Court decision that tossed out Roe, permitting states to ban or severely restrict abortion.
“I think there was no surprise,” Stern said in an interview with Deadline after the ruling was announced. She said she felt “just absolute sadness and just despair, truly, because it’s the beginning of many, many kinds of Supreme Court decisions that, personally, I think are going to set us back. And as the film illustrates, this is a very politically charged issue, abortion rights. This is really about power and [ignores] the lives of many women who are going to be hurt by this decision.
Their 2108 Netflix documentary Reversing Roe examined how right-wing activists, politicians and jurists were steadily chipping away at abortion rights across the country, with the goal of eventually overturning Roe v. Wade. Today it happened, in a 6-3 Supreme Court decision that tossed out Roe, permitting states to ban or severely restrict abortion.
“I think there was no surprise,” Stern said in an interview with Deadline after the ruling was announced. She said she felt “just absolute sadness and just despair, truly, because it’s the beginning of many, many kinds of Supreme Court decisions that, personally, I think are going to set us back. And as the film illustrates, this is a very politically charged issue, abortion rights. This is really about power and [ignores] the lives of many women who are going to be hurt by this decision.
- 6/25/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
It was less than four hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S., when The Hollywood Reporter talked to the directors of underground abortion network documentary The Janes, but to one of the filmmakers, Emma Pildes, that stretch felt like “a lifetime.”
“It just feels like a nightmare but also this weird dream state because I don’t think we’re surprised,” Pildes told THR by phone on Friday. “We’d been so wrapped up in the topic for so long and so hyper-aware of everything that’s going on.”
Pildes and Tia Lessin’s film The Janes, which has been streaming on HBO Max since earlier this month after premiering at Sundance, features firsthand accounts from the women at the center of Jane, a clandestine Chicago group that helped women obtain safe,...
It was less than four hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S., when The Hollywood Reporter talked to the directors of underground abortion network documentary The Janes, but to one of the filmmakers, Emma Pildes, that stretch felt like “a lifetime.”
“It just feels like a nightmare but also this weird dream state because I don’t think we’re surprised,” Pildes told THR by phone on Friday. “We’d been so wrapped up in the topic for so long and so hyper-aware of everything that’s going on.”
Pildes and Tia Lessin’s film The Janes, which has been streaming on HBO Max since earlier this month after premiering at Sundance, features firsthand accounts from the women at the center of Jane, a clandestine Chicago group that helped women obtain safe,...
- 6/24/2022
- by Hilary Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
[The following story contains spoilers from HBO doc The Janes.]
When a draft opinion from the Supreme Court leaked last month, suggesting the court could be poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the directors of underground abortion network documentary The Janes, which premiered on HBO on Wednesday night, were stunned.
The moment reflected the duality that helmers Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes have experienced as they made the film in recent years. “It’s this in-between place of being fully aware and in disbelief of everything that’s happening,” Pildes tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The Janes producer Daniel Arcana, whose mother was one of the members of the Jane Collective featured in the documentary, started developing the project shortly after former President Donald Trump was elected. “He was prescient. He saw, like so many others, that this story needs to be told,” Lessin tells THR.
Pildes, who happens to also be Arcana’s sister,...
[The following story contains spoilers from HBO doc The Janes.]
When a draft opinion from the Supreme Court leaked last month, suggesting the court could be poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the directors of underground abortion network documentary The Janes, which premiered on HBO on Wednesday night, were stunned.
The moment reflected the duality that helmers Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes have experienced as they made the film in recent years. “It’s this in-between place of being fully aware and in disbelief of everything that’s happening,” Pildes tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The Janes producer Daniel Arcana, whose mother was one of the members of the Jane Collective featured in the documentary, started developing the project shortly after former President Donald Trump was elected. “He was prescient. He saw, like so many others, that this story needs to be told,” Lessin tells THR.
Pildes, who happens to also be Arcana’s sister,...
- 6/11/2022
- by Hilary Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
By Glenn Dunks
If you were paying close enough attention to the ways the American political winds were blowing, you likely could have foreseen how relevant The Janes would ecome. Well, even more so than it already was. Still, even as recently as its Sundance premiere in January, it’s unlikely that filmmakers Tia Lessin (her first since 2013’s Citizen Koch) and Emma Pildes could have envisioned its release a mere few months late would coincide so frighteningly with the systematic dissolving of the rights their subjects were fighting for. Right in front of everybody’s eyes.
That The Janes is a film for this very moment isn’t what makes it so good. Although it helps...
If you were paying close enough attention to the ways the American political winds were blowing, you likely could have foreseen how relevant The Janes would ecome. Well, even more so than it already was. Still, even as recently as its Sundance premiere in January, it’s unlikely that filmmakers Tia Lessin (her first since 2013’s Citizen Koch) and Emma Pildes could have envisioned its release a mere few months late would coincide so frighteningly with the systematic dissolving of the rights their subjects were fighting for. Right in front of everybody’s eyes.
That The Janes is a film for this very moment isn’t what makes it so good. Although it helps...
- 6/9/2022
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
A HBO documentary looks to the past – a secret, women-run network of abortion providers in the late 1960s – as a window into the future of restricted reproductive rights in the US
Regardless of whether the supreme court fully overturns Roe v Wade later this month, as indicated by the majority draft opinion leaked in May, or merely allows it to be gutted at the state level, the US will continue its years-long march backwards on reproductive rights. Abortion access in the US in 2022 mirrors 1972, the year before the supreme court ensured a woman’s right to an abortion with Roe v Wade, and a time when a sparse patchwork of legalization in a few states forced many women to seek care from dubious illegal providers or dangerous at-home methods.
The Janes, a new HBO documentary on an underground network of abortion providers in Chicago in the years just before legalization,...
Regardless of whether the supreme court fully overturns Roe v Wade later this month, as indicated by the majority draft opinion leaked in May, or merely allows it to be gutted at the state level, the US will continue its years-long march backwards on reproductive rights. Abortion access in the US in 2022 mirrors 1972, the year before the supreme court ensured a woman’s right to an abortion with Roe v Wade, and a time when a sparse patchwork of legalization in a few states forced many women to seek care from dubious illegal providers or dangerous at-home methods.
The Janes, a new HBO documentary on an underground network of abortion providers in Chicago in the years just before legalization,...
- 6/8/2022
- by Adrian Horton
- The Guardian - Film News
It is a grim coincidence that the same week that HBO premieres the The Janes — a documentary about the young women who established an underground network to provide women with affordable and safe abortion care in the years before Roe v. Wade — the current Supreme Court may actually overturn that very decision that rendered the Janes services largely unnecessary nearly 50 years ago.
The Janes, which debuts on Wed., June 8, has the colorful characters, quick pacing, and twists and turns of a heist film. The directors, Oscar-nominee Tia Lessin (Trouble the...
The Janes, which debuts on Wed., June 8, has the colorful characters, quick pacing, and twists and turns of a heist film. The directors, Oscar-nominee Tia Lessin (Trouble the...
- 6/7/2022
- by Lisa Tozzi
- Rollingstone.com
Well, we survived the great content crush of spring 2022. Now we can just sit back, take a nice little breather and … wait, what’s that you say? There’s still tons of great television, streaming every week, including this week which contains the return of “For All Mankind,” the launch of a terrific Marvel Studios series on Disney+ and a new Adam Sandler sports drama on Netflix? All the better! May the content crush never end!
On with the television!
“For All Mankind”
Friday, June 10, Apple TV+
Apple TV+
“For All Mankind” has been heralded as one of the greatest shows on TV. And that isn’t an unfair assessment. It’s an alternate history look at the space race. Instead of beating Russia to the moon, the U.S. followed them. Real-life heroes are dramatized alongside wholly made-up characters. And everything is rendered in such vivid detail, both conceptually and emotionally,...
On with the television!
“For All Mankind”
Friday, June 10, Apple TV+
Apple TV+
“For All Mankind” has been heralded as one of the greatest shows on TV. And that isn’t an unfair assessment. It’s an alternate history look at the space race. Instead of beating Russia to the moon, the U.S. followed them. Real-life heroes are dramatized alongside wholly made-up characters. And everything is rendered in such vivid detail, both conceptually and emotionally,...
- 6/4/2022
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
The Janes HBO Documentary Films Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten Director: Tia Lessin, Emma Pildes Screenwriter: Tia Lessin, Emma Pildes Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 5/20/22 Opens: June 8, 2022 Nebraska’s governor announced in May that he will sign a bill to make abortion illegal even if the […]
The post The Janes Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post The Janes Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 6/2/2022
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
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Whether heading out to theaters or surfing through streaming services, there’s a lot to watch this June. These include a pair from arthouse favorites Terrence Davies and David Cronenberg, a TV miniseries from one of France’s best directors, a Jennifer Lopez double feature and… did we mention dinosaurs? There will also be dinosaurs. But first, let’s hit the beach.
Fire Island (Hulu, June 3)
Comedian and...
Whether heading out to theaters or surfing through streaming services, there’s a lot to watch this June. These include a pair from arthouse favorites Terrence Davies and David Cronenberg, a TV miniseries from one of France’s best directors, a Jennifer Lopez double feature and… did we mention dinosaurs? There will also be dinosaurs. But first, let’s hit the beach.
Fire Island (Hulu, June 3)
Comedian and...
- 5/31/2022
- by Keith Phipps
- Rollingstone.com
The Janes, which closes this year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival in-person May 26, followed by an HBO premiere June 8, is one woefully prescient walk down pre-Roe memory lane. Directed by Academy Award nominee Tia Lessin and Emmy nominee Emma Pildes, the doc tells the illicit tale of the titular underground network of college-age activists who defied the law and male expectations to provide women in Chicago with safe, shame-free […]
The post “The Way the Janes Approached This, One Woman at a Time, Helped 11,000 Women Get Safe Abortion Care”: Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes on “The Janes” first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “The Way the Janes Approached This, One Woman at a Time, Helped 11,000 Women Get Safe Abortion Care”: Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes on “The Janes” first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/25/2022
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The Janes, which closes this year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival in-person May 26, followed by an HBO premiere June 8, is one woefully prescient walk down pre-Roe memory lane. Directed by Academy Award nominee Tia Lessin and Emmy nominee Emma Pildes, the doc tells the illicit tale of the titular underground network of college-age activists who defied the law and male expectations to provide women in Chicago with safe, shame-free […]
The post “The Way the Janes Approached This, One Woman at a Time, Helped 11,000 Women Get Safe Abortion Care”: Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes on “The Janes” first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “The Way the Janes Approached This, One Woman at a Time, Helped 11,000 Women Get Safe Abortion Care”: Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes on “The Janes” first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/25/2022
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Following Doc10 Film Festival’s opening night screening of “The Janes” on May 19, several original members The Jane Collective — an underground abortion clinic led by women in the pre-Roe v. Wade era — urged audience members to take to the streets and get focused on protecting women’s reproductive rights, now believed to be at risk with a new Supreme Court ruling in the works.
“The fight is not over,” said Marie Leaner, a former Jane. “It’s only just begun.”
“The Janes” is one of 10 docus that will screen during the four-day Chicago-based festival. The Doc10 screening of “The Janes,” which will debut on HBO June 8, drew more than 250 people — the festival’s largest crowd in its seven-year history. Ten former Janes were in attendance alongside the doc’s directors, Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes. The screening occurred just 17 days after a leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting that Roe v.
“The fight is not over,” said Marie Leaner, a former Jane. “It’s only just begun.”
“The Janes” is one of 10 docus that will screen during the four-day Chicago-based festival. The Doc10 screening of “The Janes,” which will debut on HBO June 8, drew more than 250 people — the festival’s largest crowd in its seven-year history. Ten former Janes were in attendance alongside the doc’s directors, Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes. The screening occurred just 17 days after a leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting that Roe v.
- 5/20/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Chicago – Doc10, the annual Chicago ten-film-documentary festival, opens on May 19th, 2022, with a ripped-from-the-headlines event. “The Janes” is the story of a Chicago collective from the late 1960s to early ‘70s that provided abortions in the pre-Roe v. Wade era. Click DOC10 for details and the complete list of films.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
”The Janes” concern The Jane Collective of Chicago, operating from 1968 through 1973. The feminist group began setting up safe and available abortions for women through underground channels, during a period of time when the procedure was illegal in Illinois (and most of America until Roe v Wade), through laws determined by the patriarchy. Using a male practitioner, and then learning to do abortions themselves, the former “Janes” tell the story of a period for woman’s health that now seems stone age … except when looking at the repressive laws against women being perpetuated Again by the patriarchy. The issue is...
Rating: 4.5/5.0
”The Janes” concern The Jane Collective of Chicago, operating from 1968 through 1973. The feminist group began setting up safe and available abortions for women through underground channels, during a period of time when the procedure was illegal in Illinois (and most of America until Roe v Wade), through laws determined by the patriarchy. Using a male practitioner, and then learning to do abortions themselves, the former “Janes” tell the story of a period for woman’s health that now seems stone age … except when looking at the repressive laws against women being perpetuated Again by the patriarchy. The issue is...
- 5/18/2022
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes were devastated to learn that the Supreme Court may soon overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling legalizing abortion. The filmmakers had just screened “The Janes,” their documentary about abortion activists in the pre-Roe v. Wade era, at the San Francisco Intl. Film Festival when they learned about the leaked majority opinion that would turn back the clock on women’s reproductive rights nearly 50 years.
“I burst into tears when I found out” says Lessin, who with Pildes has been screening “The Janes” around the country since its Sundance premiere. “While I expected some sort of erosion of Roe and some people were even expecting the overturning of Roe, this decision was pretty shocking even to people who were in the know.”
The documentary, which will debut on HBO June 8, revolves around the Jane Collective, an underground organization that provided illegal abortion services in Chicago...
“I burst into tears when I found out” says Lessin, who with Pildes has been screening “The Janes” around the country since its Sundance premiere. “While I expected some sort of erosion of Roe and some people were even expecting the overturning of Roe, this decision was pretty shocking even to people who were in the know.”
The documentary, which will debut on HBO June 8, revolves around the Jane Collective, an underground organization that provided illegal abortion services in Chicago...
- 5/10/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Emma Pildes, the co-director of the upcoming 1970s abortion documentary “The Janes,” got a call from co-director Tia Lessin on Monday night in which she was in “floods of tears” after learning about the leaked draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the pivotal abortion decision Roe v. Wade.
That’s because both Lessin and Pildes in making their film “The Janes” know all too well of the shocking past, often disturbing present and even scarier future for what an America would look like should Roe v. Wade officially be struck down by the court. They warn that much of what is depicted in their film from 50 years ago could come racing back, immediately threatening the health and lives of women but also laying the ground work to potentially strip women of other rights and have numerous ripple effects.
“We’ve been so steeped in the realities of what this...
That’s because both Lessin and Pildes in making their film “The Janes” know all too well of the shocking past, often disturbing present and even scarier future for what an America would look like should Roe v. Wade officially be struck down by the court. They warn that much of what is depicted in their film from 50 years ago could come racing back, immediately threatening the health and lives of women but also laying the ground work to potentially strip women of other rights and have numerous ripple effects.
“We’ve been so steeped in the realities of what this...
- 5/3/2022
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Summer is around the corner, which means Rooftop Films is almost back. New York cinephiles can look forward to another season of film screenings from the longtime nonprofit, which screens independent films in a variety of outdoor locations throughout New York City. Over time, Rooftop Films has become an essential institution in the indie film world, helping top directors get their work seen while connecting undiscovered artists to the resources that they need.
Notable films on the year’s lineup include Chloe Okuno’s “Watcher,” a Sundance horror hit in the tradition of paranoid classics like “Rosemary’s Baby;” James Morosini’s “I Love My Dad,” a comedy that took the top prizes in the Narrative category at SXSW; and Andrew Semans’ “Resurrection,” a psychological thriller that earned high marks from critics and fans alike at Sundance this year.
Tickets for select upcoming screenings are on sale now via the Rooftop Films website,...
Notable films on the year’s lineup include Chloe Okuno’s “Watcher,” a Sundance horror hit in the tradition of paranoid classics like “Rosemary’s Baby;” James Morosini’s “I Love My Dad,” a comedy that took the top prizes in the Narrative category at SXSW; and Andrew Semans’ “Resurrection,” a psychological thriller that earned high marks from critics and fans alike at Sundance this year.
Tickets for select upcoming screenings are on sale now via the Rooftop Films website,...
- 5/2/2022
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
“Fahrenheit 11/9” producers and Academy Award nominees Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (“Trouble the Water”) are developing a documentary that explores the world of climate profiteering and how the planet’s wealthiest are planning to weather the uncertain century ahead.
The duo will be pitching their project during Cph:forum, the international financing and co-production event held during the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox), which runs March 21-April 3.
“Sink or $wim” is inspired by journalist McKenzie Funk’s bestseller “Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming,” which details how a growing legion of corporations, high-stakes gamblers and entrepreneurs are cashing in on the climate crisis.
“We’ve all seen a lot of movies about climate change. And there are a lot of movies that offer solutions,” Deal tells Variety. “We think it’s time to tell a new kind of climate story, to take an audience on a rollicking journey...
The duo will be pitching their project during Cph:forum, the international financing and co-production event held during the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (Cph:dox), which runs March 21-April 3.
“Sink or $wim” is inspired by journalist McKenzie Funk’s bestseller “Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming,” which details how a growing legion of corporations, high-stakes gamblers and entrepreneurs are cashing in on the climate crisis.
“We’ve all seen a lot of movies about climate change. And there are a lot of movies that offer solutions,” Deal tells Variety. “We think it’s time to tell a new kind of climate story, to take an audience on a rollicking journey...
- 3/24/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
by Eurocheese
"The Janes" are a popular topic at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and given the way women’s rights are under attack in the US today, their story remains relevant. Earlier in the festival, the fictional Call Jane highlighted one woman’s story when she became involved with this group. In The Janes, documentarians Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes show the real women who lived this history, detailing the backstory of this group and showing us what a future with restricted women’s rights might look like...
"The Janes" are a popular topic at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and given the way women’s rights are under attack in the US today, their story remains relevant. Earlier in the festival, the fictional Call Jane highlighted one woman’s story when she became involved with this group. In The Janes, documentarians Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes show the real women who lived this history, detailing the backstory of this group and showing us what a future with restricted women’s rights might look like...
- 1/26/2022
- by eurocheese
- FilmExperience
The women at Sundance are screaming at the tops of their lungs. They are saying: Why are you taking our rights away? Why are you turning the clock back 50 years?
As Roe v. Wade hits its 49-year anniversary this weekend with a near-assurance that it will never reach the 50-year landmark, multiple films at the Sundance Film Festival are reminding us what it was like when women did not have the right to choose an abortion.
“Call Jane” stars Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver in the story of a suburban housewife named Joy (Banks) who sets out to get an abortion in Chicago in 1968, when the practice was illegal. Joy stumbles into an underground network of women (led by Weaver), known as The Jane Collective, who performed surreptitious abortions for women, illegally, until the Supreme Court legalized the terminations in 1973.
The feature is rooted in history and captures the second-class status that women endured,...
As Roe v. Wade hits its 49-year anniversary this weekend with a near-assurance that it will never reach the 50-year landmark, multiple films at the Sundance Film Festival are reminding us what it was like when women did not have the right to choose an abortion.
“Call Jane” stars Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver in the story of a suburban housewife named Joy (Banks) who sets out to get an abortion in Chicago in 1968, when the practice was illegal. Joy stumbles into an underground network of women (led by Weaver), known as The Jane Collective, who performed surreptitious abortions for women, illegally, until the Supreme Court legalized the terminations in 1973.
The feature is rooted in history and captures the second-class status that women endured,...
- 1/24/2022
- by Sharon Waxman
- The Wrap
More than half of 82-strong feature roster directed by filmmakers who identify as women.
The hybrid 2022 Sundance Film Festival has announced a roster of 82 features that include world premieres for Sophie Hyde’s comedy drama Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, Michel Hazanavicius’s zombie comedy Final Cut, and Lena Dunham’s drama Sharp Stick as well as new work from John Boyega, Noomi Rapace and Julianne Moore.
Features, New Frontiers selections and shorts (the latter will be announced on Friday) will screen from January 20-30 2022 in person in the Utah hubs of Park City and Salt Lake City as...
The hybrid 2022 Sundance Film Festival has announced a roster of 82 features that include world premieres for Sophie Hyde’s comedy drama Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, Michel Hazanavicius’s zombie comedy Final Cut, and Lena Dunham’s drama Sharp Stick as well as new work from John Boyega, Noomi Rapace and Julianne Moore.
Features, New Frontiers selections and shorts (the latter will be announced on Friday) will screen from January 20-30 2022 in person in the Utah hubs of Park City and Salt Lake City as...
- 12/9/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Ralph Lauren, the fashion designer synonymous with American sportswear, will be profiled in an upcoming HBO documentary titled “Very Ralph.” The feature-length doc — airing November 12 — is being touted as the first documentary portrait of the 79-year-old Lauren, who founded his eponymous fashion brand in 1967.
A synopsis for the documentary reads:
“With an uncanny ability to turn his dreams into reality, Ralph Lauren has built a multi-billion-dollar, global powerhouse out of his aspirations, becoming a living embodiment of American optimism and the American Dream. For more than 50 years, he has celebrated the iconography of America and defined American style, translating his vision and inspiration into one of the world’s most widely recognized brands. In ‘Very Ralph,’ as he enters his sixth decade in business, Lauren reflects on his journey from a boy from the Bronx who didn’t know what a fashion designer was, to becoming the emblem of American style all around the world.
A synopsis for the documentary reads:
“With an uncanny ability to turn his dreams into reality, Ralph Lauren has built a multi-billion-dollar, global powerhouse out of his aspirations, becoming a living embodiment of American optimism and the American Dream. For more than 50 years, he has celebrated the iconography of America and defined American style, translating his vision and inspiration into one of the world’s most widely recognized brands. In ‘Very Ralph,’ as he enters his sixth decade in business, Lauren reflects on his journey from a boy from the Bronx who didn’t know what a fashion designer was, to becoming the emblem of American style all around the world.
- 7/24/2019
- by Lawrence Yee
- The Wrap
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