ABORTION
Voices of Choice - 1990 & 2024, 24:12
On November 12, 1989, “Mobilize for Women’s Lives” demonstrations in 150 cities responded to the Supreme Court’s Webster v. Reproductive Health Services decision upholding anti-Choice state legislation in Missouri. Voices of Choice is a documentary made from more than a 200 hours of volunteer-produced video recruited from 60 of those cities. Voices of Choice documents the rallies that day, traveling across the country from Maine to Alaska, organized around five themes: we are everywhere, we are everybody, we are motivated, we are organized, and we are mobilized!
An introduction, call to action and credits have been added to the 22 minute 1990 film.
Free to download and use for reproductive freedom and rights.
Contacts: larrykirkman@me.com, davidweiner@mac.com
Conceived by Larry Kirkman and David Weiner
Directed and Edited by David Weiner
Designed and Produced by Rob Henninger
Post-Production by Henninger Media Services
Voices of Choice can have a powerful impact today.
The film speaks to today’s surging movement to challenge the June 24, 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Voices of Choice can inspire activists across generations and prompt deep conversations about what has been won and lost from Roe to Webster to Dobbs, and what is yet again under severe threat in states across the country.
Media makers can use and build on Voices of Choice in many ways, including adaptations for target audiences and social media. New production might feature 1989 participants and the current generation of activists responding to the original film, to reflect on it and the history since.
The Webster decision, affirming a Missouri law banning public funds for abortion services - even just to provide counseling - opened the door for individual states to take a hammer to the protections put in place 16 years earlier by the Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.
A coalition of more than 120 organizations came together, insisting that Webster be addressed in the strongest and most public terms, not just in Washington, but across the nation. They decided on a single day of demonstrations organized by Heather Booth, a founder of the Jane Collective and Midwest Academy, to be national director. She succeeded in working with all organizations in the coalition to develop demonstrations in 150 cities.
The film is a groundbreaking use of video for democracy.
When Heather Booth asked me, then executive director of the Benton Foundation, to help collect local news coverage in demonstration cities, I recruited David Weiner who worked with me as head of production at the Labor Institute of Public Affairs and together we conceived a more expansive project that would tap into the widespread use of newly-available consumer video equipment by citizen hobbyists and the national movement of independent documentary makers, by calling for an army of volunteer videographers to document the local rallies.
From more than 200 hours of video from over 60 locations, David created a film of unique resonance and impact. Rob Henninger, our longtime collaborator and owner of (now-called) Henninger Media Services provided his own valuable expertise to design the film and supervise post-production.