Contractions
12 min., 2024
In the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade, “Contractions” takes us to Memphis, Tennessee where we contemplate the discontinuation of abortion services at a women’s health clinic. We listen to an obstetrician and a reproductive rights activist who movingly lay out these vital issues. We watch 14 women and their male allies who witness and perform with their backs to the camera. In a state where a woman can no longer make decisions about her own body, they can only “speak” with the full force of their collective presence.
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ended a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion in the United States. Twenty-one states now ban abortion outright or earlier in pregnancy than the standard set by Roe v. Wade, which governed reproductive rights for half a century. The woman’s health care facility in this film no longer offers abortions.
Intimate confessions, paired with experimental choreography outside a woman’s clinic in Memphis, offer a glimpse into post Roe v. Wade America.
Director
Lynne Sachs
Voices
Dr. Kimberly Looney
Jane
Performers
SaBrenna Boggan
Chase Colling
Shana J. Crispin
Kimberly Hooper-Taylor
Coe Lapossy
A. Lloyd
Audrey May
Vanessa Mejia
Natalie Richmond
Krista Scott
Neal Trotter
J. Wright
Nubia Yasin
Co-producers
Emily Berisso
Laura Goodman
Lynne Sachs
Cinematographer
Sean Hanley
Editor
Anthony Svatek
with assistance from Tiff Rekem
Studio recording
Doug Easley
Sound mix
Kevin T. Allen
Festivals:
True/ False Film Festival, Premiere, Columbia, Missouri Feb. 2024
Cosmic Rays Film Festival, March 2024
Ann Arbor Film Festival, March 2024