Abortion: Stories from North and South

Directed by Gail Singer

Canada, 1984 (documentary, 55 minutes, colour, English)

Also known as "L'avortement : histoire secrète"

Image: © National Film Board of Canada

Film Description:
"Women have always sought ways to terminate unwanted pregnancies, despite powerful patriarchal structures and systems working against them. This film provides a historical overview of how church, state and the medical establishment have determined policies concerning abortion. From this cross-cultural survey—filmed in Ireland, Japan, Thailand, Peru, Colombia, and Canada—emerges one reality: only a small percentage of the world's women has access to safe, legal operations."
-- National Film Board of Canada (source)

Film Credits (partial):
Written by:	Gail Singer
Produced by:	Signe Johansson, Gail Singer, Kathleen Shannon
Narrator:	Dixie Seattle
Film Editing:	Toni Trow
Music:	Maribeth Solomon, Micky Erbe
Production Company:	National Film Board of Canada / Office national du film du Canada

(sources)

Notes about Abortion: Stories from North and South

Shown at the Festival of Festivals (Toronto) in 1984.

(sources)

Quotes about Abortion: Stories from North and South

"Through these and other images assembled by writer, director, and co-producer Gail Singer with co-producer Signe Johansson [...], the fact that women have had, are now having, will continue to have abortions, no matter what the consequences, takes on a stunning new reality. The common thread running through these often tragic stories is that men, from popes to politicians, decide whether women will be allowed legal birth control and abortion, or be driven to back streets and questionable procedures. Although this emphasis on women's lack of control over their own bodies is as disheartening as it is true, Abortion: Stories from North and South is ultimately an essential film because it introduces us to a new range of experiences of women who share an intimate dilemma."
-- Kathryn Jankowski (source)

"If the film does have a Western ethnocentric perspective, it is clearest in the contrast between the sequences that deal with abortion in the West—the ones constructed in part as fiction—and those located in the underdeveloped world in which the point of view is that of an intrepid Margaret Mead, anthropological and distanced, consolidated by the relentless presence of voice-over."
-- Brenda Longfellow (source)

Bibliography for Abortion: Stories from North and South

Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites

Jankowski, Kathryn. "Faces of an intimate dilemma." Review of Abortion: Stories from North and South. Ms., August 1985.
Longfellow, Brenda. "From didactics to desire." Canadian Forum, February 1985.

Web Sites about Abortion: Stories from North and South

National Film Board of Canada. "NFB -- Abortion: Stories from North and South." National Film Board of Canada. http://www.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/?id=14600.
Office national du film du Canada. "ONF -- L'avortement - histoire secrète." Office national du film du Canada. http://www.onf.ca/collection/films/fiche/?id=2740. [in French]