Series Site
"As women’s bodily autonomy is being stripped away by American legislation, the right to a safe and legal abortion is once again a personal and political battleground. Oft considered a ‘taboo’ subject, abortion has in fact been portrayed in film for just about as long as the medium itself. Spanning the silent era to the present day, this series surveys depictions of unintended pregnancy in American narrative cinema, from Josef von Sternberg's dark pre-Code drama An American Tragedy (1931), to the iconic ’80s rom-com Dirty Dancing, to Eliza Hittman’s indie hit Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020). Whether fraught with or free of moral judgment, these stories reflect, and other times oppose, the prevailing politics and mores of their time.”—Emma Myers, series curator
The series will be accompanied by a documentary shorts sidebar, including It Happens to Us by Amalie R. Rothschild, and more.