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| Directed by: Stephen Fell, Will Thompson |
Theatrical Release: 2006
DVD Release: 2007
Released by: First Run FeaturesDolby
Digital 2.0 stereo
Fullscreen |
Unborn in the USA started out as a
film project by Stephen Fell and Will Thompson, two students at Rice University in Texas.
They were asked to do a portrait of a person they did not know as an assignment for a
documentary film class. Fell and Thompson interviewed a pro-life activist in Houston who
had constructed artificial graveyards commemorating the lives of aborted children.
Fascinated by their initial interview and surprised at how "normal" their
subject was, they expanded the project into a full-length documentary that ultimately took
them across 35 states in order to interview and film pro-lifers as they worked.
| Roe v. Wade This is the controversial but landmark decision by the United States
Supreme Court in 1973 stating that the right to privacy guaranteed under the 14th
Amendment applies to women with respect to pregnancy, and subsequently state laws
restricting abortion or outlawing it were inconsistent with the Constitution. Under this
decision, abortions are permissible by the woman for any reason she chooses up until the
time the fetus becomes viable, i.e., able to live outside the mother’s womb
(whether requiring artificial aid or not). The point of fetus viability is still in debate
but is usually between 24 and 28 weeks.
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban
The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act prohibits a form of
late-term abortion that the Act calls "partial-birth abortion," referring to a
procedure called "intact dilation and extraction" by the medical community. The
US Congress found this procedure to be gruesome and inhumane and never medically
necessary. Under the Partial Birth Abortion Act, physicians who perform this procedure are
subject to fines and/or imprisonment.
Partial-birth abortion is not a preferred procedure by most
physicians who perform abortions because of the long-term health risks associated with it.
Apparently, there are better abortion methods.
...Mischa Hayek
mischah@hometheater.com |
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Fell and Thompson do not attempt to show both sides of the
abortion issue. They interview only active members of the pro-life movement, and in doing
so the pro-life message comes across loud and clear. Parts of the documentary are very
graphic. Only the most hardened will not be moved by the pictures of aborted fetuses that
are presented numerous times throughout the film. Those looking for a balanced view or an
intellectual debate on abortion will be disappointed.
On my first viewing of this film, it became clear that I
needed to understand better two of the important moments in the history of the abortion
movement to appreciate fully some of the discussion from the various interviewees: the US
Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, and the Partial Birth Abortion Ban (see
sidebar). An explanation within the film would have been useful and framed the discussions
better.
Of the special features in this DVD release that are
worthwhile viewing are the self-taped video interviews of some of the film’s
participants after they had seen the completed documentary. They pass judgment on
directors Fell and Thompson as to whether their side of the debate was impartially
presented. The answers to that question are interesting.
Picture quality varies throughout the film. Clearly, the
documentary was filmed using handheld video cameras, so the picture was a little jumpy in
places. As well, there was some additional jerkiness, I suspect, due to the use of video
cameras with different frame rates. Sound is generally of the quality one would expect
from handheld cameras without the benefit of good-quality microphones -- not very good.
Unborn in the USA was released by First Run
Features, a company founded in 1979 for the purpose of releasing independent films, both
fiction and non-fiction, that are daring and provocative. First Run Features is now one of
the leading distributors of documentaries. If you like Unborn in the USA, check out
some of the other titles First Run Features has released in the last few years. |
