If you’ve already watched The Handmaid’s Tale, you’re not alone. Now is an inspired time for entertainment: Progressive filmmakers are sparking conversations about sex, sexuality, birth control, abortion, and other social issues that affect all of us.
Here are 5 more movies/series that address sexual and reproductive health and rights:
Movie: RBG
RBG opened nationwide on May 11.
Synopsis: At the age of 85, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has developed a breathtaking legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon. The unique personal journey of this diminutive, quiet warrior's rise to the nation's highest court has been largely unknown — until now. RBG celebrates Ginsburg as the foremost advocate for gender equality on the Supreme Court, and the only Justice who expressed their support for a woman’s right to choose during their Nomination Hearing. Bader Ginsburg: “[Women's] ability to realize their full potential, the Court recognized, is intimately connected to their ability to control their reproductive lives.”
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Movie: The Tale
The Tale premieres on May 26 on HBO. It will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO, and HBO On Demand from May 26th onwards.
Synopsis: Jennifer Fox (Laura Dern) faces a host of life-altering questions after a short story from her middle-school days forces her to reexamine her first sexual relationship and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive. Based on Fox’s own life story, The Tale sees the filmmaker pushing forward the boundaries of conventional storytelling, creating a dialogue between past and present to illustrate the interplay between memory and trauma.
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Movie: Heather Booth: Changing the World
Online distribution coming soon. To host, co-sponsor, or attend a screening, email: [email protected].
Synopsis: Heather Booth: Changing the World traces the ongoing legacy of activist and community organizer Heather Booth. In telling the story of Heather’s life and work, the film presents an overview of 50 years of the progressive movement, as well as a manual on how to become an organizer. The film blends archival and contemporary footage with interviews with close friends, clients, political colleagues, and students to understand one person's legacy in progressive politics. It arms viewers with methods they can employ to preserve our democratic principles.
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Netflix Series: Dear White People
Dear White People was originally a movie; the series is now available on Netflix.
Synopsis: Dear White People is an American satirical comedy-drama television series based on the 2014 film of the same name. It follows a group of black students at a predominantly white school who face social injustice. The series includes an abortion storyline. “We need to have conversations about women’s health within the community,” Antoinette Robertson (series star) said. “And to be perfectly honest, I feel like women across the world should be able to make their own choices with respect to their bodies.
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Movie: I Am Not an Easy Man
I Am Not an Easy Man is available on Netflix.
Synopsis: Imagine a chauvinist pig of a man. Now imagine that man gets conked on the head and knocked out, and when he wakes up, the world is fundamentally different. Instead of living in the patriarchy he’s lived in his whole life, the world is a matriarchy — where women are in charge of everything and men are cowed into subordinate positions, dressing sexy for their lady bosses. You would think this man might learn a lesson or two.
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