belly of the beast documentary

15. September 2020 @ 14:19

We were fortunate that he believed in the film and remained committed to uncovering them. After Cynthia connected us, we began collaborating on a variety of projects, including Imprisonment separates and destroys families, which disproportionally impacts women. The law firm that took on Kelli’s case had merged with another firm and only one of the attorneys on her case was still there. Once we got in touch with him, it took months to track down the files as they were in an offsite storage facility. The mental, physical and emotional toll of this continual state of violence is unfathomable. From there, I began working with people inside on a project that would become I had heard about Kelli Dillon's powerful activism through Justice Now, though I didn't have an opportunity to meet her until a few years into the process. Talk about couples goals! The deposition serves as our introduction to imprisonment, later placing us in the midst of an unfolding trial, and finally as a storytelling device, evoking both past and present, as Kelli pursues her own dreams while confronting the sense of obligation to the cause. Though Cynthia and her team had dozens of testimonials from sterilization survivors and documentation from the Federal Receiver, it was impossible to gain traction with legislators, funders and partner organizations. When I left, my sons were two and four, so I watched my children grow up on the other side of the glass." We witness population control and systemic racism through policing, imprisonment and lack of access to healthcare—and yet given the levels of secrecy and privacy these institutions hide behind, it’s incredibly difficult to uncover abuses of power. "Justice Now's board members inside prison felt it was crucial to investigate the sterilization abuse, even if it resulted in the organization's downfall. The pictures he takes are usually based on pure instinct, he likes to see the image quickly and grab it.

In addition to serving time and having to navigate the long-term ramifications of imprisonment, people who were illegally sterilized while incarcerated are also confronted with the permanence of their inability to have children. The deposition footage in itself viscerally conjures these themes, and is interwoven throughout the film to remind us of such.We actually uncovered the deposition footage after our IDA DocuClub screening, after nearing picture lock, after initial film festival submissions. With her protagonists on hand, Cohn set out to follow their journeys in their fight for reproductive justice.The next 10 years would dramatically change my life, as I slowly uncovered answers to these questions through multiple lenses—artist, activist, journalist, friend.

Justice Now was the first organization to take this on, and CIR was the first media outlet to investigate these abuses.

"Would you like to receive event invitations, news, and updates from the International Documentary Association?© 2020 International Documentary Association. All Rights Reserved. Cynthia invited me to volunteer for Justice Now and I later became a volunteer legal advocate, providing direct service needs for over 150 people in California's women's prisons. Check out some of the IMDb editors' favorites movies and shows to round out your Watchlist.Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. It took a combined effort from both groups to bring this issue to light.2) We needed fewer facts and more character development.4) We needed to make it clear that it wasn’t just one doctor, one prison official, one bad apple perpetrating these abuse; it was the whole system.Cynthia felt, "We are not merely experiencing a pandemic, we are living in a eugenic moment of rising fascism: politicians and business owners are flippantly demanding the sacrifice of elders and people with preexisting medical issues for the betterment of capitalism and the State; 'essential' has become the adjective to sugar-coat the expendable working class, which is disproportionately women of color. As it relates to prisons, Kelli describes, "It’' really hard to funnel out the information, if some form of injustice or mistreatment has happened to me. A verité legal drama about Judge Kholoud Al-Faqih, the first woman appointed to a Shari'a court in the Middle East, whose career provides rare insights into both Islamic law and gendered justice. Belly of the Beast is an Action Thriller about a small town in Austinville, Ohio where a very influential and powerful person (Cort) runs the town by placing people in high positions to do ... I had been speaking with the attorneys who represented Kelli during her trial about accessing her case file for fact-checking purposes. Together they illuminate the struggle for reproductive freedom, the insidious nature of forced sterilization among communities of color, and the tangible challenges in seeking legal redress, changing policy and achieving justice. Belly of the Beast and No Más Bebés are complementary films, centering around the experiences of survivors and their legal teams, both investigating the legacy of eugenics from different time periods and distinct vantage points.