89 minutes / B&W
French / English subtitles
Release: 2024
Copyright: 1973
Shot in Paris in 1973, this feminist film on the fight for abortion rights was banned as soon it was released. A large-scale game of hide-and-seek ensued, as activists created an underground distribution network, hiding the film from the police — and creating an effective model for cinema as an act of civil disobedience in the process.
Faced with a tide of illegal abortions leading to death and sterility, a group of doctors decided to offer abortions for free, and to be public about it. Charles Belmont and Marielle Issartel originally set out to make an educational film about the movement. Instead, they created a feature-length feminist classic.
In STORIES OF A, we sit in on meetings with women and doctors, and witness abortions being performed. The film also takes us into the streets, as women demonstrate in front of hospitals, facing police repression. Perhaps most importantly, STORIES OF A amplifies the voices of women seeking abortions: a high school girl living in a shelter, two Algerian women who already have numerous children. And then there is Aïcha, an outspoken disabled immigrant woman on a hunger strike, who opens and closes the film.
Recently restored, STORIES OF A is both a fascinating historical document, and a reminder of the critical importance of access to abortion.
“The film—which was then also banned in France—is an exploration of activism on behalf of the procedure’s legalization. Above all, the filmmakers put abortion into the wider context of social and economic change—of women’s control over not just their bodies but their lives.” —Richard Brody, The New Yorker, October 4, 2024
“Histoires d’A was also, and still remains, an example of militant cinema that was mindful of people and situations, concerned about pedagogy and emotion, driven by a current where anger over unjust legislation mixed with the joy of a collective struggle filled with energy.” —Slate, June 20, 2023
“Charles Belmont and Marielle Issartel’s Histoires d’A was a revelation… Its landmark political significance made me assume it would be a relatively rote piece of militant filmmaking, but it’s truly a work of cinema.” —Screen Slate, October 4, 2024
“A precious testament to militant struggle, the film is also important for the breadth of its insight into the female condition. It uncovers the seething, unfiltered voices of wives, single mothers—of women from every walk of life, who tell the story of their marriages, homes, the slavery of domestic life, and the pressure from the medical community to “make babies,” and not terminate unwanted pregnancies. A strong, hard-hitting documentary that draws from the tensions and debates that stirred up a divided society ready to crack.” —Télérama, No. 3792, September 14, 2022
“Stirring… The human testimonies and true-to-life documents that comprise it explain better than many theoretical commentaries how urgent it is to try and provide education and to amend a flouted law.” —Le Monde, 1973
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