Reproductive Rights Film Festival Talkbacks
9/19-9/22
Eleven individuals will be offering their comments and expertise following the five films scheduled for the second annual Reproductive Rights Film Festival, from September 19 through September 22, 2024, at Cinemapolis (120 E Green Street, Ithaca NY). The only film festival in New York State to focus on reproductive rights, this event is free and open to the public. Further information is available at ReproductiveRightsFilmFest.comand cinemapolis.org/reproductive-rights-film-fest.
Each of the films will be followed by a talkback between the panelists and the audience, guided by a guest moderator. The first film, “Power Alley”, appears on Thursday, September 19, at 7 p.m. The moderator is Leah Shafer, associate professor, Media and Society Program, Hobart and William Smith Colleges The panelists are Montinique McEachern, visiting assistant professor in Women’s and Gender Studies at Hamilton College, and Pamela Sertze, assistant professor in Latinx Studies in Ithaca College’s Center for Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity.
The second film, “Preconceived”, is on Friday, September 20, at 7 p.m. Its discussion moderator, Cait Vaughan, interim executive director of Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights (GRR!), will host panelists, Joan Adler, a pregnancy options and sexual health counselor for 30 years at Planned Parenthood in Ithaca and member of End Abortion Stigma, and Elayne Richard, the education coordinator for Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights, GRR!, and who formerly worked in an abortion clinic in the late 1970s.
The third film, “Plan C”, is on Saturday, September 21, at 3 p.m. Its moderator is Emme Edmunds, a lecturer in Ithaca College’s public health-degree program and a member of End Abortion Stigma. Edmunds is also a midwife and nurse practitioner who worked on an FDA drug trial. The panelist , appearing by zoom, is Elisa Wells, a public health specialist with 30 years of experience in the reproductive health movement. In 2015, she co-founded Plan C, the subject of the documentary.
The fourth film, “Belly of the Beast” is on Saturday, September 21, at 7 p.m.
Cait Vaughan will host two panelists, Erika Cohn (via zoom), the director of “Belly of the Beast” and an Emmy and Peabody awards recipient, and Sarah Cushman, Cornell Prison Education Program’s re-entry associate. Cushman is justice impacted and currently a graduate student in public health at the University of Rochester.
The fifth and final film, “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”, is on Sunday, September 22, at 7 p.m. Cayenne Cave, a filmmaker and senior majoring in Documentary Studies and Production at Ithaca College’s Park School of Communications, will moderate the discussion with three panelists: Joan Adler, Emme Edmunds, and Caitlin Hunter, a community organizer for Planned Parenthood of Greater New York.