rePROFilm Podcast

Today, we mark the anniversary of the Dobbs decision with an insightful podcast featuring members from the second cohort of the rePROFilm and Peace is Loud Collective Lens Program. We’re joined by some truly inspiring storytellers who are here to remind us that we’ll never stop fighting for reproductive justice - especially through a means as powerful as media;  And why it is so important as a filmmaker to think about impact, and what that means to you, through a holistic lens. We’re so thrilled to have spent the better part of the last year with these phenomenal makers and to champion their films. Thanks to all of them for joining us and thank you for listening - we hope it offers you a glimmer of hope!

Hosted by Asha Dahya featuring filmmakers: 

• Abortion & Women’s Rights: 1970 - Mary Summers, Karen Weinstein, Jane Pincus
• Her Pretty Vagina - Kiah Clingman
• Now That We Are Together - Patricia Balderas Castro
• Outcry: Alchemists of Rage - Clare Major and Rivkah Beth Medow
• Pros & Cons - Kenyetta Johnson
• Show Me The Line - Kelsey Ianuzzi
• Teddy -  Lauren Santucci

rePROFilm | @reprofilm   •   Peace is Loud | @peaceisloud

Support the show

Learn more at reprofilm.org or follow us at @reprofilm. The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

Fat activist Allison Graham talks to photographer Shoog McDaniel about what it was like to be on the other side of the lens for the documentary about their life and art practice.

“I want people to see the movie and not be able to see a difference between the beautiful spring water and the beautiful Belly. I want it to be one and the same.” — Shoog McDaniel on the Periodical Podcast

“My work is about highlighting bodies and lives that are often overlooked by popular society. I enjoy photographing fat bodies, trans bodies, and queer bodies. People with gap-toothed smiles and missing buttons … I strive to connect the viewer of each photo to beauty within themselves, through understanding the brilliancy of diversity, by showing them that there are many ways to be beautiful.” — Shoog McDaniel, from a statement on ShoogMcDaniel.com 

Support the show

Learn more at reprofilm.org or follow us at @reprofilm. The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

It’s a very compassionate thing to do to see yourself as you are and not hate yourself.” — Allison Graham on building fat community in her hometown

Advocate and community-builder Allison Graham joins guest host Emily Christensen for a conversation about why she likes the word fat, body positivity vs. fat liberation, and how anti-fat bias shows up in the work she does as a therapist and advocate for survivors of sexual violence.

More recently, Allison has been working to build fat community in Wichita, Kansas, and she discusses her motivation and goals around that work.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Periodical Podcast, in which Allison interviews photographer and “How to Carry Water” documentary subject Shoog McDaniel.

**Allison and Emily do mention weight, weight loss and body size over the course of our conversation. We also talked about sexual violence in the context of Allison's work as a therapist, and advocate. If these are sensitive subjects for you, please take care.

Support the show

Learn more at reprofilm.org or follow us at @reprofilm. The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

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.

Support the show

Learn more at reprofilm.org or follow us at @reprofilm. The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

On the Periodical Podcast, triple threat Nyala Moon chats about her “Fleabag”- inspired fourth-wall-breaking short film “How to Date While Trans.”

Like a lot of actors, Moon had to create the content she wanted to star in. When she was in school, pre-”Pose,” she jokes that most roles for trans people were “dead hooker #87” on “Law & Order: SVU.” She realized she couldn’t depend on others to create the kind of characters she wanted to play. 

Moon’s “modern stories for trans people,” are populated with  characters audiences can relate to. She hopes that helps transform how they feel.  

Support the show

Learn more at reprofilm.org or follow us at @reprofilm. The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

“I don't personally believe you can extricate environmental issues from reproductive issues because if a mother is drinking polluted water, what is that going to do to her system? What is that going to do to the system of the baby that she's housing? If she lives in an area where he can see noxious fumes being pumped into the air because of a nearby refinery, what is that going to do to her respiratory system? … If she lives in a food desert, what is that going to do to her strength? All of these things matter.” — Zora Schiltz Rouse

While working as a journalist and editor, Morgan Jerkins noticed a trend: stories and personal essays about the ethics of having a baby in a world marked by rising temperatures and other indicators of climate change. But these stories, she noticed, were always written by white women. “I thought to myself, ‘well they're not the most susceptible to violence, or erasure or lack of care. If anyone should be writing a lot of these stories, it should be black and brown women.’”

That recognition was the genesis of “Black Madonna.” In this inspiring conversation, Jerkins and her co-director Zora Schiltz Rouse discuss how they collaborated in order to bring Aziza’s story to life.

Follow Black Madonna on Instagram:
@black_madonna_bloom  |  @_morganjerkins  |  @zoritapepita 

Support the show

Learn more at reprofilm.org or follow us at @reprofilm. The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

Morgan Jerkins and Zora Schiltz Rouse are young filmmakers working at the thematic intersection of environmental and reproductive justice.

Morgan is a New York Times bestselling author and National Magazine Award-winning journalist. Zora is a producer and director who most recently worked on a Ryan Murphy show for FX.

We'll be back with their full interview on April 3 — think of it as a post-film Q&A.

In the meantime, follow them on IG: @_morganjerkins, @zoritapepita

Support the show

Learn more at reprofilm.org or follow us at @reprofilm. The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

More than a decade ago, Tyomi Morgan noticed no prominent Black women were talking about sexual health. “Instead of complaining about it, I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to enter into this space.” The sexologist and designer of The Cowgirl Workout sits down with Asha Dahya to discuss how our bodies are hardwired for pleasure, the way cultural B.S. interferes with that reality, and how we can reconnect. 

“This is part of our humanness. Our sexuality, no matter what it looks like, is a part of our experience. And we get to talk about this … out loud and in the open with medically correct terms.” — Tyomi Morgan

• youtube.com/@GLAMerotica101
• Instagram: @realglamazontyomi
• thecowgirlworkout.com | thepleasureacademy.com
• Periodical Volume 24

Support the show

Learn more at reprofilm.org or follow us at @reprofilm. The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

“Labor + Justice” is such a tonally wild and imaginative film, we were fascinated to hear a behind-the-scenes conversation about of how it came together. For example, director Sarah Joy Byington researched real-life stories of women charged with crimes after experiencing miscarriages or stillbirths. Their stories inspired her dystopian narrative. On this month’s Periodical Podcast, the director speaks with Asha Dahya about making a shocking-yet-sensitive film. She also shares how motherhood helped shift her own views on abortion and reproductive justice. Ultimately, “Labor + Justice” reflects her own growing understanding of this complex topic, including how it intersects with race, homelessness, and substance abuse. 

Support the show

Learn more at reprofilm.org or follow us at @reprofilm. The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

In this moving conversation, Asha Dahya speaks with writer/director Jahmil Eady about how her own birth story inspired the screenplay for “The Bond.” When Eady was born, her mother was incarcerated. She was shackled during labor, a practice that continues in many U.S. states today. During Eady’s teen years, her mother and other activists successfully advocated for anti-shackling legislation in New York state. Both her mother’s story and Eady’s extensive research informed the short film. 

"This film is meant to be a tool not just for talking about anti-shackling and the issues of giving birth behind bars, but it is also a way for people who have shame and and feel stigma to find one another ... It's a tool for connection. The reality is, in a country where millions of people are impacted by the carceral system, there's so many of us out there." — Jahmil Eady

Support the show

Learn more at reprofilm.org or follow us at @reprofilm. The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!