Davies Forum Presents: Film Screening of Birthing Justice
Birthing Justice: Film Screening and Book discussion
Thursday, September 12, 2024
5:30-7:30 pm
McLaren 252
Food and refreshments will be provided
Join us for a film screening followed by a Q&A with Executive Producer Denise Pines and Black Women Birthing Justice co-founder, Chinyere Oparah.
Film Description: This is a story of Birthing, ... of Life... of Justice
Black women in the United States are three to 4 times more likely to die during childbirth than white women. BIRTHING JUSTICE, a feature-length documentary film, captures the experiences and challenges of Black women, their families, caretakers, and advocates, and examines the structures and systems that determine disparate rates of mortality. Ultimately, this pivotal film celebrates the efforts to fix America’s broken medical system and transform this narrative of tragedy into one of hope. See them. Hear their stories. Remember and honor those we have lost. And join the movement to ensure BIRTHING JUSTICE for Black mothers and their families.
Denise Pines is an award-winning filmmaker and community health advocate. She served more than 14 years as a creative consultant for talk television and radio shows (PBS/NPR) and 12 social justice documentaries. As co-founder of Women in the Room Productions, she is committed to diversity in front and behind the screen. Pines work includes thought-provoking documentaries and engaging live programs for PBS, including the award-winning “Birthing Justice” and NAACP nominated “PUSHOUT: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools” the “Fight for $15” and its impact on small business, “Too Important to Fail” examining the school-to-prison pipeline, the plight of New Orleans’s residents on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (directed by Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme) and a “one-night-only” filmed Prince concert at the Conga Room in Los Angeles. Her next film “The M Factor: Shredding the Silence on Menopause” opens up the conversation on women’s health at midlife. Pines is the president of the Osteopathic Medical Board, past president of the Medical Board of California and serves on the executive board of the Federation of State Medical Boards.
Chinyere Oparah has published extensively on black maternal health, decarceral politics, research justice, and transnational black feminisms. She is the co-founder of Black Women Birthing and co-author of Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirth, a seminal text that puts black women at the center of debates about the crisis in maternal health care. She is lead author of Battling Over Birth, a human rights report that challenges existing research paradigms used to investigate black women's perinatal health, using a research justice framework. She has also written articles on Black birthworkers, birth experiences, and the COVID-19 pandemic.