THE JANES
TOMORROW NIGHT
THURSDAY, MAY 9 AT 7PM
TOWN HALL THEATER IN MIDDLEBURY
AN INCREDIBLY TIMELY DOCUMENTARY FROM DIRECTORS EMMA PILDES & TIA LESSIN
3-TIME EMMY AWARD WINNER FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY, BEST DIRECTION AND OUTSTANDING SOCIAL ISSUE DOCUMENTARY
FEATURING A LIVE ZOOM Q&A WITH DIRECTOR EMMA PILDES
MODERATED BY MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE PROFESSOR AMY MORSMAN
-VERMONT THEATRICAL PREMIERE-
In the spring of 1972, police raided an apartment on the South Side of Chicago where seven women who were part of a clandestine network were arrested and charged. Using code names, fronts and safe houses to protect themselves and their work, the accused had built an underground service for women seeking safe, affordable, illegal abortions. They called themselves Jane.
Directed by Oscar-nominee Tia Lessin and Emmy-nominee Emma Pildes, The Janes offers first-hand accounts from the women at the center of the group, many speaking on the record for the first time. The Janes tells the story of a group of unlikely outlaws. Defying the state legislature that outlawed abortion, the Catholic Church that condemned it, and the Chicago Mob that was profiting from it, the members of Jane risked it all to save women’s lives. Before the Roe v. Wade ruling–– a time when abortion was a crime in most states and even circulating information about abortion was a felony in Illinois –– the Janes provided low-cost and free abortions to an estimated 11,000 women.
In the wake of the recent Arizona Supreme Court ruling resurrecting an 1864 edict promulgating a near-total ban on abortion as the current law of the state, it would be hard to overestimate the timeliness of this film. See the Vermont Theatrical Premiere of The Janes.
Join director Emma Pildes for a live Zoom Q&A immediately following the screening, moderated by Amy Morsman, Middlebury College Professor of History.
‘The Janes’ Review: An Intimate and Informative Look Back at a Radical Underground Abortion Group
Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’ expansive and emotional documentary about the Jane Collective sheds necessary light on a very recent history.
By Kate Erbland, Indie Wire
“I had no other options. I wanted it over with. And I didn’t care how it was done, I was that desperate.” Such is how Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes’s intimate and informative “The Janes” opens, introducing audiences immediately to one woman, now decades removed from the period of her life in which she needed the help of the underground abortion service and feminist collective, who can still conjure the same emotions and circumstances that drove her to her choice. And yet what might be most inspiring and special about Lessin and Pildes’ documentary is that this single woman who opens the film doesn’t serve as some sort of stand-in for the thousands (yes, thousands) who utilized the services of the Jane Collective (or just “Jane”) during 1969 through 1973, but simply one facet of a story long deserving to be told. At once deeply personal and painfully political, “The Janes” should be required watching for everyone. Notably, it knows that and leans into it.
Context is necessary: In the late ’60s, abortion was mostly illegal around the country, and many women were suffering because of it. And not just emotionally, mentally, and economically; as one Jane member puts it early on, many women were willing to do “awful things” to abort their pregnancies, and the threat of grievous physical injury hangs over the majority of the film. Illegal abortions were possible and, in the politically fractured Chicago in which Jane made its stand, were mostly available through the mafia. As many of the subjects of the film explain, that was cold comfort for many.
Inspired by a changing world and their desire to help change it, the original members of Jane banded together to form a group that could assist any and all women in need of help, regardless of if they could pay for it. Their process was smart, savvy, and entirely dedicated to providing a safe space for their clients.
Directors Lessin and Pildes, and their many subjects, eschew cheap emotion in favor of something much more intimate and, ultimately, more honest. Many of the talking heads still grapple with their choices, even an entire century later, but remain edified by the understanding that they accomplished Jane’s goal: to help women who needed it. Many of the stories and subjects that round out the film could easily spawn their own documentaries and series (just wait until you meet the group’s lawyer late in the film), but “The Janes” stands as a compelling look at their work that should educate and enthrall curious audiences.
MNFF Selects Thanks Its Generous Sponsors For Their Support!
