COLLECTIVE LENS

Today on the podcast, and the 2nd anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Asha Dahya speaks with Florencia Varela of Peace Is Loud and Lela Meadow-Conner of rePROFilm, along with several  filmmakers who participated in the recent Collective Lens Impact Training program to talk about why supporting films in reproductive justice is so important.

Peace is Loud is a 501(c)3 non-profit  that harnesses the power of storytelling by women, trans, and nonbinary change makers to mobilize strategic collective action grounded in equity and care. Through our Film Impact Campaigns and Speakers Bureau, we use stories to connect people with tools for action, and strengthen the influence of women-identified and gender-expansive storytellers.

Through film and conversation, rePROFilm advocates for reproductive health, justice and bodily autonomy. We lift intersectional issues, using the power of storytelling as a catalyst for knowledge, intention and action. rePROFilm publishes the monthly Periodical, a content drop featuring a curated short film, original podcast & more; and presents in-person screenings across the country. rePROFilm is a project of mamafilm, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

Transcript

Asha Dahya (01:25):
Welcome to a special capsule episode of the rePROFilm Podcast, where we’ll learn about Collective Lens, a community impact space cultivated by Peace is Loud and rePROFilm to support filmmakers who are telling reproductive justice stories of all kinds. The 6 month training program is designed for filmmakers who are committed to reproductive health and justice, equipping them with community, as well as value-driven tools and strategies to position their films in solidarity with the movement as well as to develop and connect with audiences. The first cohort comprised ten projects including documentary, narrative, animation, short, feature, series and experimental films in all phases of production.Topics included period/menstruation, intersex justice, incarcerated birth, abortion justice, pregnancy loss, and queer & radicalized pregnancy stigma.Today, on the two year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, we’ll speak with the program’s facilitators and hear from some of the filmmakers about why they’re making these films - and also making change with these stories - matters so much.Please welcome Florencia Varela, Program Lead, Learning and Filmmaker Outreach at Peace is Loud and Lela Meadow-Conner, co-founder of rePROFilm, to the podcast. Hello ladies.

Lela Meadow-Conner (01:28):
Hello.

Florencia Varela (01:29):
Hi.

Asha Dahya (01:30):
So great to be in conversation with you today, and as you both know, filmmaking is extremely hard, so having this supportive community and cohort is just so wonderful. And I know that the filmmakers have expressed this in their conversations as well. So to kick things off, Flo, can you tell us a little bit more about Pieces Loud and your work there?

Florencia Varela (01:49):
My name is Florencia Varela and I am the Program Lead for Learning and Filmmaker Outreach at Peace Is Loud. Peace Is Loud is an intersectional feminist organization that harnesses the power of storytelling by women, trans and non-binary change makers to mobilize strategic collective action, grounded and equity and care. And now how that manifests in our program work is really via film impact work, and we really have three areas within that we focus in on. We do film impact campaigns mostly with documentary films. We work in field building and with them that we have been producing protagonist care resources for filmmakers, so tools and resources that will help filmmakers better support the protagonist of the films that they're working on. And the last part of it is Collective Lens, which is the conversation we're having right now, which is our learning spaces that are geared for filmmakers and all things impact.

Asha Dahya (02:43):
That's wonderful. I mean, as a filmmaker myself, I can just express how wonderful it is to have these communities and resources to tap into because it is so hard to be a filmmaker and get your work out there. So I love hearing everything about Collective Lens and pieces, loud, Lela, we know each other, I know about repro film, but tell us more about how repro film came to be and a bit about your work.

Lela Meadow-Conner (03:07):
Thanks, Asha. It's been a minute since I've been on the podcast. For those who might not know, repro Film was born as a virtual film festival during the pandemic with a small grant from the Dr. George Tiller Foundation here in Wichita, Kansas where I live. And it was meant to originally be a in-person screening series, but then March, 2020 came about, so I called some friends who worked at the Cleveland International Film Festival, and I knew that we're very passionate about RJ and bodily autonomy, and I said, we have this very small grant, do you think we can put together a virtual film festival in six weeks? Oh my gosh. They had just completed their first virtual film festival during the pandemic, which was very successful. So we set to it six weeks later, we had a national film festival dedicated to reproductive justice, and we did the festival again in 2021, but by then people were going outside and it was August and it's a really hard sell to ask people to watch five days of films about reproductive justice from their couch.

(04:08):
So we decided to change the format and for the last couple of years we've been programming the periodical. We program a short film every month and we do a podcast with you. We link to news articles all inspired by the movie that we select, and it's really important that we're talking about lots of different issues that fall under the reproductive justice banner. So here we are. And one of the things that we'd always wanted to do was figure out a way to actually support the filmmakers. So this is why I was so excited when this opportunity came along.

Asha Dahya (04:35):
So tell me, how did the opportunity come along? How did you both meet? Tell me about the origins of Collective Lens.

Florencia Varela (04:41):
Yes, I was thinking back on this. So we're in 2024 and this really, the seed of this all dates back to 2021 pieces loud was beginning to work on an impact campaign actually on the Divide by Maya Cueva and Leah Gallant at the same time, the context that that film deals with is abortion restrictions in Texas, and there was a very dangerous piece of legislation coming down the pipeline for Texas called SB eight. And at that time, there was this interest happening in our industry in a little pocket of industry, I would say, with values aligned organizations wanting to do something, wanting to perhaps put out a letter in solidarity. And it ended up being that it was pieces loud. Well, Lela of course, in repro, Maggie McKay had videos, and Karen Coleman at Future of Film is female. And then we had a whole lot of people who signed onto the letter and it was just a really powerful moment for us in industry to take a stance in solidarity, those most affected in Texas.

(05:37):
And it's just funny looking back just now this morning I found the email where I emailed a colleague of mine at Pieces Loud saying, wow, we're connected with Repro and Lela, now we need to have a conversation with them. And here we are. Right? So since that letter happened, it's just funny. I think I need to send a screenshot to Lela about that. But since then, after that letter went out, I know Lila also knew Maya and Leah because of On the Divide and just conversations organically started happening, and we were probably in touch I think for about two years of just having conversations, catching up, knowing what we were doing, and just I think just fostering a friendship. I say that so careful because

Lela Meadow-Conner (06:18):
No, I love it. And we've actually never even met in person.

Florencia Varela (06:22):
I know we're working on that part of the friendship that's still work in progress. But eventually, I want to say it was towards the beginning of 2023 that we said, okay, things are aligning programmatically. We're very interested in supporting filmmakers. That's exactly when pieces, louds Collective Lens program was starting to take a bit more of programmatic shape, I would say. And Lee already had this wonderful community of filmmakers and we thought it could be really interesting for the first time ever to do some sort of cohort combining of both of our organization's superpowers. We're coming in with the impact content, Lela's coming in with this incredible, robust and committed community of filmmakers that she's fostered over the years, and the time was just right. And from there we started ideating together and fundraising and the rest is history.

Asha Dahya (07:11):
I love that. Well, thank you for sharing that. I love the story of how you both come together, and I'm confident you'll both meet in person one day, and it is really about fostering those friendships as well as the industry connections, and I think that's super important. Well, it also feels apropos that we're speaking about reproductive justice on this particular day in an election year. Can we just dive into that a little bit?

Florencia Varela (07:35):
It does feel so intentional. I really don't love using the phrase now more than ever, but these films all have a very direct link to that specific moment and the ripples that have come and could come from it. And also something that really has stayed with me over the past two years is that June 24th, 2022 Pieces Lab was working on the Impact campaign for On the Divide. So on one hand it is full circle, and it really shows how a film that it took seven years to make on the divide, it comes out in 2022, this happens, and it was in a direct conversation. Here we are two years later and the film is still just as relevant. So it really just shows how stories continue being a tool to enact social change, a tool for action even so many years later.

Lela Meadow-Conner (08:24):
Absolutely. And it really does feel cyclical. We founded Repro film in 2020 because we were like, we have to do something before the election to spotlight reproductive justice and these stories. And here we are four years later in the exact same situation, but it's another reason why we continue to fight to support these films and the filmmakers and to show the films and to get them in front of audiences and hopefully affect change as the filmmakers themselves intended.

Asha Dahya (08:52):
One of the things that really sets this program apart is that you distributed $30,000 worth of grants to this first cohort. Can you tell me a bit more about that?

Lela Meadow-Conner (09:00):
Yeah. To me that was so exciting and really, really important, and I'm so glad that Flo and I had ideated on this idea for as long as we did to really get it to a point where this could be a reality because that's something that we always wanted to do. And we'd gone through a few iterations of how does this program look? And when we were finally able to get the funding together, it was so exciting to be able to say, we're going to give you this training, but we're also going to be able to give each project $3,000 to support the impact work because impact costs money. As a filmmaker, you and I both know that what we really need is money. The education that even I got through the program was incredible. I also just know that cash is Queen, and at the end of the day, that was just such an amazing piece of it for me. I think

Florencia Varela (09:50):
There were two things to me that were so paramount. One being that there's a lot of impact learnings. We do this, we share impact learnings with filmmakers. The problem is that there's not a lot of funding for the actual impact work. So there's this gap that happens. It's a very energizing gap that a filmmaker acquires a lot of knowledge, has shepherd their own ideas, and then it's like, oh, no, now what kind of moment? So we wanted to fill that gap tactically with a little bit of funding. And I think the other part was this unrestricted notion that was really important to Lela and I, because this really ties back to pieces, lau's perspective and impact. We think about impact bigger and more outside of just the impact campaign, we think of impact. That's something that starts really at the genesis of an idea for a story.

(10:35):
It's a values forward practice, and it's really every decision a filmmaker makes, even from development, every decision can have a potential for change. So it's not just what we call the work, but it's how we do the work. So with that in mind, it felt really necessary for those funds to be unrestricted. There might have been an opportunity for folks to pay back folks, there might have been opportunity to pay themselves. So there was just a real dire need for that to be unrestricted, and we were very lucky to be able to do that. And I think we also recognized that the grant itself is a drop in the bucket. It's something to grow, and that's also something that we hope that will grow, but also everyone else in the industry will also invest in and grow. Can

Asha Dahya (11:17):
You just break down what unrestricted means for people who aren't aware of grant lingo?

Florencia Varela (11:22):
Oh, for sure. Of course. So unrestricted basically means that it's not restricted for a specific project. So a lot of times when you go fundraising for impact campaign work, it's going to be restricted to the activities within that impact campaign, that formal container, kind of like the same as a film, it's going to be contained to a specific aspect of that. In this case being unrestricted, it was really a grant towards the film and they could apply it in any wish direction. Our vision and what did end up happening was that filmmakers then through the learnings of the program itself, applied those funds with an impact lens no matter in which way they were going. One of our participating filmmakers, Susan O'Brien, put it very well.

Susan O'Brien (12:01):
Hi, my name is Susan O'Brien and I am the director of "The Lifespan of a Butterfly," which is a short documentary film that is currently in development that focuses on pregnancy justice here in America, told in a very intimate portrait of one specific case. I think the industry can better support reproductive justice storytellers by creating grants, creating more funding opportunities that allow our stories that we care so deeply about, and the stories that are happening here in America and internationally that are so necessary to tell in order to move forward. These are the stories that need to be told because they are affecting people on a daily basis, but the funding isn't there for these stories to actually get shown on screen. I think there's a lot of assumption that we can just fund it ourselves, we can just take care of it ourselves and we can find a way, but there's a lot of effort that takes place when you are making a film. There's a team, there are people that you are focusing on that we want to be able to pay our subjects, the people who are featured, and there should be more funding.

Lela Meadow-Conner (13:30):
And I also love what Aiko Alonzo had to say, hi,

Aiko Alonso (13:33):
My name is Aiko Alonzo. I'm joining an Impact cohort as a filmmaker in Mexico City. I think it is really necessary to improve specific funds and applications to filmmakers with reproductive justice projects because governments don't see this as a human rights topic, but behind this exists a lot of lack of justice that needs to be exposed.

Asha Dahya (13:57):
I couldn't agree more, and as someone who has done this myself, we absolutely need more financial, like you said, money is queen, more financial and industry support for these stories, and with the industry changing so much, it's so hard to keep up. So when you are in that pipeline as a new or emerging filmmaker, you need all the support that you can get. So I think this is really important and there is such a breadth to the films in the cohort and also to subjects and topics under the umbrella of reproductive health and justice. Can you talk a little bit more about this?

Lela Meadow-Conner (14:27):
Yes, and so often when we're thinking about reproductive justice, we are only thinking about abortion because it's what all the public discourse is about, especially now during this election year. But I think one of the best things about our work at Repro film and with this cohort is discovering the stories and issues that people have. Endometriosis, fibroids, period, poverty, transgender rights, healthcare. I could go on and on. And I do want to point out that there also positive stories, but one thing that is that remains is that most of these stories, I would say nearly all of them are rooted in or are very close to someone's personal experience. And I think that's what makes these films so powerful. One of our cohort members, Jaime Cefas project is something I'm really excited about because it's again, a topic that we never really hear about.

Haimy Assefa (15:15):
I am Haimy Assefa I'm a director, and my film is called "Rare But Life-Threatening." It's a documentary short that explores the few years between the late seventies and early eighties during toxic shock syndrome era, as I am calling it, which is a time when the CDC and other medical professionals were dealing with a phenomenon where people, mostly women and girls across the country had experienced severe illness and were becoming septic. And based on their investigations, they realized that the common denominator for most of these cases were the tampons that they had been using. What made me want to explore TSS and the history of it is I remember as a girl opening up a box of tampons and reading the little rolled up piece of paper with the fine print inside and reading the warning that there is a small chance that it could kill you. And I just remember early puberty thinking how it just blew my mind, and I think it always sort of stuck in the back of my mind and many, many years later, still every once in a while would think about that. And so sometime last year I got curious enough to do a little bit of research, and that's how I ended up here and wanting to make a film about what TSS is, what that has meant to public health, women's health, and what the results of that are today.

Asha Dahya (17:07):
This is 100% a topic that every person who uses a tampon, which is quite a lot of us, should be educated about beyond that little piece of paper in the box, which let's be honest, who reads it anyway,

Florencia Varela (17:18):
Now it's totally true and within the cohort, the topics ranged, but also the way the people are telling these stories also range. So I mean, as Lila was saying before we had documentaries, we had hybrid, we had animation, we had narrative, we had shorts, and we had feature length because of that wonderful combination. We talked a lot about the impact of narrative films. While pieces loud roots are really un documentary and it remains the genre that we center the most in our work, we also think there's potential for impact across genres including narrative. And one project in particular that comes to mind was from Maria and Daniel, and in addition to the unique way that they're telling the story, we really loved what they had to say about why these stories are so important within the repro movement.

Daniel Fabelo (18:04):
So my name is Daniel Fabelo

Maria Maella (18:06):
And I'm Maria Maella

Daniel Fabelo (18:07):
We have co-written a narrative short film about a middle-aged couple dealing with a pregnancy in which their child has a genetic abnormality and the fallout of that in the state of Texas. Well, let's put context in our story, trying to broaden the audience beyond people who know our subject matter. Part of our story or part of the purpose in telling it is definitely informing or at least illuminating factual things that are happening as well as the emotional impact of these choices. That's kind of the context of who we're trying to speak to that informs how a film can have impact on the different audiences.

Maria Maella (18:53):
It also, in a way, it serves as a language in and of itself for people to communicate how they feel about these things or to feel seen, for lack of a better term. I know that that's used a lot in film, but it's true. It's representation because it's so hard to articulate what a perspective is on this or the nuances of a story. When you get into the intimate life of the person that has to deal with this type of situation, you don't find those nuances in the political debates necessarily in the news. Storytelling just humanizes it. Films humanize it for sure. They add people to it, they speak to all of our senses.

Florencia Varela (19:36):
Haimy echoed the power of being inspired by a group of other filmmakers too.

Haimy Assefa (19:40):
My experience being a part of this impact cohort with other filmmakers has been really refreshing. It's really wonderful to have a space where impact is prioritized and to be in the company of other filmmakers that are thinking really critically and seriously about the impact of their films on the community, on the participants of their films is really inspiring, and I think has really opened up my eyes to different forms of impact and ways to integrate that earlier on in the filmmaking process versus considering it something that is considered or tacked on once the film is complete or near completion.

Lela Meadow-Conner (20:30):
Susan shared those sentiments as well in a really moving way.

Susan O'Brien (20:33):
It was incredibly impactful to be part of this amazing group of very talented, very thoughtful filmmakers that repro and pieces loud helped in facilitating and putting all of this together. It felt like it was a safe space to educate ourselves collectively on things that we all had questions about, share with each other, our own experiences, and really make this center of learning and understanding and community. I think one of the biggest struggles sometimes as a filmmaker, especially when you're working on documentary film and you're in the weeds, it's hard to see the full perspective of things at times and constantly being able to chat through with other filmmakers who have been through it, who have done similar things, who are like-minded in a lot of different ways, having them to bounce ideas off of and trust that they have your back and you have theirs was just really beautiful and special and something that is a rarity in this industry. And so it was this beautiful kind of safe haven to learn from one another, to discuss with one another and know that you could say anything and talk through anything, and that these people, they understood you and that you could empower one another.

Florencia Varela (22:20):
The program was intentionally virtual so that we could have filmmakers from across different regions. Aiko specifically helped cement our belief that it was paramount to build community in this way.

Aiko Alonso (22:30):
During the sessions, we understood the power of cinema as a catalyst for meaningful dialogue and action, and meeting fellow filmmakers who shared this vision was really inspiring. We believe in cinema as a social tool, and that's amazing. It was really a journey of self-discovery, collaboration, and empowerment that referring my belief in the power of storytelling to change hearts, minds, and in the future maybe societies.

Asha Dahya (23:00):
Well, this sounds like an incredibly passionate group of filmmakers, and it's really exciting that Collective Lens is able to equip them with these tools. Flo, can you tell me about some of the impact tools that they have on hand

Florencia Varela (23:10):
Throughout the program, we combined skills-sharing sessions with community open spaces in our skills sessions, per se. We brought in our collective lens materials. For example, we did a session on what we call impact fundamentals, which covers the what, why, and how of impact, all the way from the very macro question of what is impact to the nuts and bolts of building a strategy for an impact campaign, all while sustaining a values lens for the work. We were also able to share pieces of Leah's case study for "On the Divide" which felt really, really special because Maya Cueva and Leah Galant were cohort members, so they were also able to in the presentation and talk about that experience as well. And we also try to equip the filmmakers tactically. We offered original tools and templates and guides that could support each of them in their impact work. And I love what Jahmil Eady came away from the program because we're not only supporting their current projects, but future ones too, building an ecosystem really of filmmakers who have more of an insight on impact.

Jahmil Eady (24:07):
Hi, my name is Jahmil Eady. I'm the writer and director of "The Bond" which is a short film that follows an incarcerated pregnant woman as she gives birth and fights to hold on to her most precious connection in a very isolating system. I had a really wonderful experience working with Collective Lens and being in community with the other social impact filmmakers. I came away with so many new tools and resources for building not only impact campaigns for the Bond, but impact campaigns for future projects that I am working on. I feel really resourced. I feel really excited and equipped to go out and reach out to community partners and build organic relationships with them. My Impact producer and I have been reaching out to organizations that align with the Bonds reproductive justice and Antis Shackling mission, and it's just been really wonderful to just feel reinvigorated around these issues.

(25:24):
And then I'm also in pre-production on another short, that is a reproductive justice short that brings attention to healthcare disparity and the black maternal mortality crisis in the United States. It's called Sea Turtles. And because of Collective Lens, even though I'm only in pre-production on the short, I've already hired a Social Impact producer. We've already gone out to community partners. We started a mini external discovery. We've talked to organizations about their own goals. We went in and we asked them what are the three goals that our film could help support? And we're implementing a lot of that feedback already in two the project. And so yeah, it's just been really fantastic and Life-changing, doing the Collective Lens social Impact workshop and just looking forward to continuing to build community with the other filmmakers in my cohort.

Lela Meadow-Conner (26:28):
I also love what Maria and Daniel said about their experience in the cohort and being in community with these other filmmakers.

Maria Maella (26:34):
It was interesting to see where everybody else was at with their story. There's so many different angles to reproductive justice. The approach as much as the perspective that everybody was coming at it with was different. You could tell that there was some frustration in, some were driven with anger, which is fuel in a certain way, and others were driven with care. There's inspiration. It was a good group to be in. There was a lot of passion in it. I think

Daniel Fabelo (27:03):
I totally agree. There was a lot of passion and a lot of personal strength and bravery and people telling really intimate things that I would not hear in my every day life For research,

Maria Maella (27:17):
I'll say even before sharing the work, just understanding every filmmaker's perspective and what their story was in my head turned them into an audience member. It's like, oh, what if this person is watching the movie that we're trying to make from their perspective? How are we serving them? I think that that was eyeopening to me because there's so much nuance in reproductive rights and seeing where these people are at with their thought process and in their personal connection to the subject matter, them an audience member. It already brought into my horizon.

Asha Dahya (27:53):
It definitely sounds like there was a lot of generosity of spirit within this group, would you say?

Florencia Varela (27:57):
I really love that generosity of spirit because I completely agree. I think I genuinely mourned the ending of this program a little bit. There was definitely some process of grief that happened when we wrapped our last session. I think it's because of that. I think every single filmmaker who came into the program came into the room, the proverbial room really from a position of collective learning and collective building and solidarity. And I keep saying this, but it really gave me hope. It was also really special to see how some of them were connecting outside of the program as well to mutually resource or bounce ideas off or come together for projects. So I would say generosity of spirit is spot on.

Lela Meadow-Conner (28:34):
I totally agree with Flo, and honestly, the two of us didn't want it to end. We felt so connected to these stories and these filmmakers. It was a really lovely experience for us, I think too, and I learned so much as a filmmaker just being a part of this group as a curator, and it's really centered something that I felt for a long time, that there's so much power in affecting change when there's a level of intimacy involved in the process, whether it's a program like this with 10 projects or even showing a film like micro gatherings and convenings are the root, I think, where real change happens. It felt really special in that way. I'm just so thankful to our program funders for recognizing this, and I hope more funders will follow suit. And as slow said, I hope that as this program grows, we're able to offer our filmmakers more funding as well.

Florencia Varela (29:18):
We want to give a formal thanks to all of the participants for joining this experiment and their openness to impact and this community. So officially thank you Aiko Alonso, Aubree Bernier-Clarke & G. Chesler, Haimy Assefa Jahmil Eady & Selena Leoni, Kira Dane & Katelyn Rebelo, Maria Mealla & Daniel Fabelo, Susan O’Brien & Sanjna Selva, Timmia Hearn DeRoy & Pere DeRoy, Maya Cueva & Leah Galant, and Sue-Ellen Chitunya.

Lela Meadow-Conner (29:45):
Many thanks to this incredible group of filmmakers who we will continue to champion.

Asha Dahya (29:50):
I agree, and I think it's so exciting to hear about some of these projects and how programs like this really can be impactful not only to a film's journey, but to a filmmaker's career. And actually this whole sector of storytellers.

Florencia Varela (30:03):
We're excited too. I mean, we're excited about what happened. We're excited for the vision for next steps and the future of the program. Right now, we're really in the early planning stages for cycle two of this collaboration. So I guess stay tuned. Everybody details, application and submission information is going to be coming out soon.

Lela Meadow-Conner (30:22):
And to add to what Flo said, it's so exciting to have the opportunity to build this network of filmmakers working in this space. These are very, very often hard topics, and when you can find people that you trust to talk about with, it's so invaluable. So as this program continues, we hope that we can bring all these filmmakers together to support one another in many, many ways.

Asha Dahya (31:21):
It’s so exciting that you’ll be able to repeat this program for a second time, and hopefully many more to come. I am personally thrilled that opportunities like this exist for RJ storytellers - and I hope all funders, and exhibitors are taking note of this cohort’s projects. You can check them out at repro film dot org under artist support. Thank you Flo and Lela, to the filmmakers who leant their perspectives and if you’re a filmmaker with a repro-themed film, stay tuned for more information about cohort 2, coming soon. I’m Asha Dahya and this is the rePROFilm Podcast. Thank you for tuning in.