E2 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MAY 8 , 2022
film1960s. “It’s still working on me,”
she says, recalling a post-screen-
ing news conference in Venice
when she was “asking myself
whether I would say out loud or
not that I had had an abortion. ...
I worked three years [making a
film] against silence and I still
hesitated to say it aloud.”
When it comes to women ter-
minating their pregnancies, mov-
ies have played a singular role in
either stigmatizing the issue or
playing into false, hysterically
pitched stereotypes. There was a
period when the subject was
portrayed straightforwardly on-
screen, from a famously ground-
breaking 1972 episode of
“Maude” to movies of the 1980s
and 1990s like “Parenthood,”
“Dirty Dancing,” “Fast Times at
Ridgemont High” and “The Cider
House Rules.” Gradually, sto-
rylines involving abortion were
erased almost entirely from cin-
ematic narratives. For surprise-
pregnancy comedies like “Juno”
and “Knocked Up” to succeed,
abortion had to be reflexively
rejected as an option, reduced to
a taboo or a punchline — even
though an estimated 24 percent
of women will have an abortion
during their childbearing years,
according to the Guttmacher In-
stitute.
In other words, the post-Roe
rom-com heroines played by Ju-
lia Roberts and Meg Ryan were
statistically more likely to find
economic security and self-fulfill-
ment by choosing when to be-
come mothers (or not), than by
becoming a sex worker and run-
ning off with a rich businessman
or striking up an email flirtation
with a bookstore mogul.
The escapist pleasures of fan-
tasies like “Pretty Woman” and
“You’ve Got Mail” notwithstand-
ing, the costs of the generational
silence that has evolved around
abortion are becoming clearer by
the day, as access to abortion is
being dramatically curtailed in
Texas, Oklahoma and several oth-
er states, and with the recent leak
of a draft Supreme Court opinion
that would strike down Roe. “I
would never have thought that
[‘Happening’] would be timely in
the United States,” says Diwan.
“That’s the story of women’s
rights, unfortunately. Culture re-
sponds to the mentality, the con-
sciousness or unconsciousness,
of a period of time. ... I do think
we have to make noise.”
“Happening,” which arrives in
theaters on May 13, is one of
several recent and upcoming
films that are seeking to do just
that. In June, HBO will air “The
Janes,” a documentary about an
underground group of Chicago
activists who defied the Mafia,
Chicago police and the sexist
mores of the era to provide illegal
abortions to more than 10,00 0
women. “Call Jane,” a dramatized
version of the story starring Eliz-
abeth Banks and Sigourney
Weaver, is expected later this
year. Together with “Premature”
(2019), in which Zora Howard
ABORTION FILMS FROM E1
Grim timeliness of ‘Happening’ signifies cinematic shift
ASSOCIATED PRESSANDY KROPA/INVISION/ASSOCIATED PRESSreferring to the Supreme Court
hearing the Mississippi case that
might overturn Roe in June. “But
it isn’t totally shocking.”
“Certainly a lot of the Janes
have told us that if it weren’t for
what’s happening now, they may
not have spoken for the cameras
and put their names behind this,”
adds co-director Tia Lessin.
Why has it taken so long?
Many of her fellow Janes have
been busy doing other things.
“But people weren’t really inter-
ested, either,” Smith notes. Com-
placency also set in. “We rested
on our laurels a little bit with this
issue, and got comfortable with
the idea that Roe is good enough,”
Pildes says.
And there’s no doubt that who
was telling the story mattered.
While women have made profes-
sional gains since the 1970s —
thanks in part to being able to
decide whether and when to
become parents — that progress
wasn’t reflected in Hollywood,
where women were consistently
denied the top jobs. With women
only recently beginning to make
inroads creatively and commer-
cially, it should come as no sur-
prise that they’re illuminating
truths about their lives that male
filmmakers have historically
deemed uncomfortable, unrelat-
able or simply uninteresting.
As consequential as that ab-
sence has been, Pildes sees rea-
sons for optimism. “It’s pretty
heartening that ... when women
are being given the opportunity
to tell these stories, they are,” she
says. “And they’re telling them
with other women, about other
women. It’s a good trajectory.”played a college-bound woman
navigating an unplanned preg-
nancy; Eliza Hittman’s “Never
Sometimes Rarely Always”
(2020), about a Pennsylvania
teenager trying to obtain an
abortion amid restrictive laws; as
well as such comedies as “Obvi-
ous Child” (2014) and “Plan B”
(2021), abortion and reproduc-
tive care in general finally seem
to be emerging from the conver-
sational shadows, albeit decades
late.
Activist Eileen Smith admits
that when producer Daniel Ar-
cana first asked to interview her
for “The Janes,” she demurred.
Although she had remained close
with her fellow real-life Janes,
she had moved on with her life. “I
... became a nurse, and then I had
kids, and then life was so frickin’
hard,” Smith recalls. “I had done
a few interviews here and there,
but I was like, ‘That’s in my past,
I’m really busy right now.’ ”
Then she saw the stage musical
“Hamilton.” “And hearing that
song [‘Who Lives, Who Dies, Who
Tells Your Story’], I was just like:
Whoa,” she says. “Who does tell
the story? I remember coming
home that night and going, ‘I’m
going to do it.’ ”
Noting that the Hyde Amend-
ment, barring the use of federal
funds for most abortions, went
into effect three years after Roe v.
Wade, “The Janes” co-director
Emma Pildes observes that ac-
cess to abortion has been
“chipped away” since the pro-
cedure was decriminalized. “Peo-
ple keep saying, ‘The timing, the
timing, we can’t believe the tim-
ing of this film,’ ” Pildes says,MARTHA SCOTT/HBOTOP: Anamaria Vartolomei
in a scene from
“Happening,” Audrey
Diwan’s adaptation of
Annie Ernaux’s memoir,
about her experience
seeking to terminate a
pregnancy as a university
student in 1963. MIDDLE:
A 1972 photo of members of
the Janes, underground
Chicago activists who
provided illegal abortions
to more than 10,000
women. HBO will air a
documentary about the
collective next month.
BOTTOM: Diwan said she
wanted to make a film
about an era when it was
easier to consign women to
dangerous illegal abortions.When it comes to women terminating theirpregnancies, movies have played a singularrole in either stigmatizing the issue or playinginto false, hysterically pitched stereotypes.Prices are soaring at auction – now is the perfect time to sell.
Our Specialists are collecting Jewelry, Watches, Art and more for
auction consignment, outright purchase or private sale.Sell at Auction in New York!Georgetown, DC Consignment DayWednesday, May 18Samira Farmer & Reid Dunavant
[email protected]
301-348-5282DOYLE AUCTIONEERS & APPRAISERS NEW YORK
CALIFORNIA CHICAGO CONNECTICUT FLORIDA MASSACHUSETTS
LONG ISLAND NEW JERSEY NORTH CAROLINA PENNSYLVANIA WASHINGTON, DCOscar Heyman Brothers, Diamond and
Enamel Gardenia Earclips. Attributed to Oscar
Heyman Brothers, Diamond and Enamel
Gardenia Brooch. Auction June 23.