CONTRACTIONS

by Lynne SACHS
2024 / color / sound / 1 screen / 12' 00

In the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade, “Contractions” takes us to Memphis, Tennessee where we contemplate the discontinuation of abortion services at a women’s health clinic. We listen to an obstetrician and a reproductive rights activist who movingly lay out these vital issues. We watch 14 women and their male allies who witness and perform with their backs to the camera. In a state where a woman can no longer make decisions about her own body, they can only “speak” with the full force of their collective presence.

On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ended a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion in the United States. Twenty-one states now ban abortion outright or earlier in pregnancy than the standard set by Roe v. Wade, which governed reproductive rights for half a century. The woman’s health care facility in this film no longer offers abortions.

Intimate confessions, paired with experimental choreography outside a woman’s clinic in Memphis, offer a glimpse into post Roe v. Wade America.

“A couple of years after the annulment of the ruling known as Roe v. Wade, which, since 1973,
guaranteed the right to abortion in the United States, weeds are growing on the walls of an empty
clinic in Memphis, Tennessee. In this abandoned setting, a group of women, some holding hands
with their companions, seem to recreate a kind of off-screen abortion: the entrance and exit of
the clinic. We do not see their faces, but the sound guides us: in the voices of two women we
hear the testimonies of those who once exercised a right, now lost. “
– Karina Solórzano, Documenta Madrid

“The cast’s gestures enact trauma, nerves, and capriciousness in doing something once legally acceptable that is now the opposite. They carry a history where their reproduction rights are currently in paralysis.” – Dispatches from True/False, The Brooklyn Rail, Edward Frumkin

“Fourteen women and their male allies, their backs to the camera, stand in full force outside a Memphis health clinic that can no longer provide abortion services following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. On the soundtrack, an expert obstetrician-gynecologist and an anonymous activist bear witness to the fearsome uncertainties and dangers that lie ahead.” – Josh Siegel, Curator of MoMA

“Contractions is a much-needed film in the current political climate, as the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022. Offering an intimate look at abortion rights, this experimental short exposes the poignant testimonies of people directly connected to a clinic in Memphis, Tennessee. As we observe the slow march of women and their allies to the clinic, the voices of an obstetrician and a reproductive rights activist echo the disastrous consequences of ending women’s right to a safe, legal abortion in the United States. In the film, it’s the strength of community that shines through, as these people can no longer make decisions for their own bodies.” – Festival Filministes

See full film on The New York Times Op Docs:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/18/opinion/abortion-ban-clinic-tennessee.html



No print in distribution