rePROFilm Podcast

PLACENTA PÂTÉ 
Tia Salisbury in conversation with Asha Dahya

This month we wanted to switch gears a little and bring some joy and humor to the table. Our feature short film is called ‘Placenta Pâté’, and if you haven’t seen it yet, head to reprofilm.org to watch right after this chat because as you’ll hear, there are some really fascinating insights into the background of this film that will make you appreciate all the hard work, research and passion that goes into making even a short film. 

Our guest today is Tia Salisbury - a multi-award winning writer and director based in the UK. Her live-action shorts have been screened at BAFTA qualifying festivals including 'The London Short Film Festival'. Although COVID was a tumultuous time for the film industry and for parents, for Tia, who is also a mum, it ended up being a rather productive and successful time in her career. She made a comedy short film which won 2 awards, and wrote a comedy series pilot. 

Tia's latest comedy short, 'Placenta Pâté', focuses on new parenting in all its messy chaos, as experienced through the eyes of clashing same-sex mums Libby and Erin, played by Bethan Nash and Georgia Frost. New mother Libby has breastfeeding woes, but when her wife suggests a traditional placenta remedy as the answer, underlying tensions rear their head, and it's not just the kitchen getting messy.

Join Asha Dahya as she speaks with Tia about all things placenta, motherhood, filmmaking, and how sometimes the best way to get your project funded is to annoy the crap out of funders until they give you the money and tell you to, “piss off”. 

If you haven’t already, subscribe to our monthly newsletter where you will get each episode of the pod straight to your inbox. Learn more at reprofilm.org or at @reprofilm The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

Bonus Episode: Why WE’RE Here

Get to know us a little better in this bonus podcast episode: A few members of the rePRO team got together to talk about why we do this work. Hear from co-founders Lela Meadow-Conner and Mallory Martin, podcast host Asha Dahya, programmer Neha Aziz, and copywriter Emily Christensen.   (Recorded prior to June 24, 2022.)

“We're all from all across the country. We're from all different walks of life and different lived experiences, different ages … (we’re in) different parts of our lives. And I think that it’s so important that rePRO never is a singular vision. It is all of us..” — Lela Meadow-Conner

reprofilm.org

If you haven’t already, subscribe to our monthly newsletter where you will get each episode of the pod straight to your inbox. Learn more at reprofilm.org or at @reprofilm The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

Andrea Raby and Marie Khan in conversation with Asha Dahya

In this bracing conversation, “Undue Burdens” director/producer Andrea Raby and Marie Khan, director of operations for Midwest Access Coalition break down what each of us can do to preserve abortion access and why wearing Handmaid costumes and wielding wire hangers isn’t helpful. 

“We have …  abortion pills. We have practical support funds. We have abortion funds. We have mutual aid organizations. We have radical harm reduction spaces.” — Marie Khan on the structures that are in place now that people didn’t have access to 50+ years ago.

Andrea Raby is a Chicago-based documentary filmmaker and producer whose films have played in festivals across the U.S. Her latest short film “Strikers” is supported by IF/Then Shorts. She was a fellow of the 2019 Double Exposure Film Festival with her short film “Undue Burdens.” Her producing credits include podcast “Love is Not” and short documentary “A Galaxy Sits in the Cracks.” She is currently a co-producer on director Ruth Leitman’s in-progress documentary “No One Asked You.”

Marie J Khan (she/her) came on board with Midwest Access Coalition (MAC) in 2016, a practical support organization assisting and funding abortion seekers traveling for care. As the director of programs, she works closely with partner clinics and hospitals, and is a hotline coordinator providing comprehensive logistical planning, booking, and funding for travel/lodging/childcare/food for MAC clients.  Marie grew up in Southern Wisconsin, in a conservative Christian space. Once she was able to access more reproductive resources and broaden her worldview, she realized she had much to learn. Connecting with her own South Asian community has been critical in her ongoing process of understanding herself. She’s worked exclusively at bars, nonprofits, and public universities, and is thankful for the radical and fearless thinkers who have helped her survive and thrive.

If you haven’t already, subscribe to our monthly newsletter where you will get each episode of the pod straight to your inbox. Learn more at reprofilm.org or at @reprofilm The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

rePRO PERIODICAL VOL. 04: AAPI IN THE REPRO CONVO with Lilly Hu of Cold Wall & Seri Lee of NAPAWF

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Repo Film Podcast as part of the Repro Periodical Newsletter, where each month we share a short film and conversation centered around a theme. May is Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and given that the majority of our film team are part of the AAPI community, myself included, we fully realize the importance and timeliness of looking at the way we approach and help justice impacts AAPI Folks.

This month, we're featuring the stunning short film Cold Wall and a short interview with writer and director Lilly Hu, who is originally from China. Cold Wall was her award winning IFC thesis film, which is about a young Chinese high school student experiencing an unplanned pregnancy while studying abroad alone in Los Angeles. Cold Wall follows Bei Bei a.k.a Katie as she negotiates her own unwanted pregnancy in an American culture that she doesn't fully understand.

In the second half of this episode, I'll be speaking with Seri Lee, the national campaign and membership director for the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, also referred to in our interview by its acronym NAPAWF, Seri and I talk about the scary time we are living in, staring down the barrel of Roe v Wade being overturned. What reproductive justice is and why it is important for the AAPI community and what we as everyday people can do, even in small ways to ensure abortion access reproductive health and human rights is a reality we can all work toward.

It is a time filled with uncertainty right now. But as Seri quotes, black American abolitionist Mariam Kabir in our interview, "Having hope is a discipline." I love that quote so much and we will not give up. So I hope you enjoy this conversation.

SHOW NOTES:

• COLD WALL (Dir. Lilly Hu)
  • Watch on Vimeo
• NATIONAL ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN WOMEN'S FORUM | NAPAWF
  • napawf.org
  • Sign your name on the Asian American and Pacific Islander Abortion Solidarity Statement  –  https://www.napawf.org/abortionsolidarity
• Our Blues (Netflix)
  
  
• Sign up for our free, monthly rePRO Periodical
• Visit reprofilm.org for more information

If you haven’t already, subscribe to our monthly newsletter where you will get each episode of the pod straight to your inbox. Learn more at reprofilm.org or at @reprofilm The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

rePRO PERIODICAL VOL. 04:  A PERIOD PIECE featuring Shuchi Talati, Director/Writer of 'A Period Piece'

This month we’re focusing on menstrual health and all things periods. Yes, the topic that literally billions of people around the world experience, yet is still heavily stigmatized in so many ways. From menstrual products being taxed as “luxury goods” in a number of countries, to the lack of access to period products, and women and girls being shunned from their communities and forced to stay in potentially dangerous spaces because menstruating is considered “dirty” or “unclean” by certain groups, it’s clear we have a long way to go to dismantle harmful cultural norms.   But one of the most exciting areas we are seeing change in, is film and media. From the 2018 Oscar-winning short documentary “Period. End of Sentence”, to more recently Pixar’s ‘Turning Red’ driving a tonne of conversations on social media about how periods are included in family films, this is what we need to see more of! No more silence!

We are speaking with an acclaimed filmmaker Shuchi Talati, whose short narrative film 'A Period Piece' is breaking silence and taboos in powerful and beautiful ways. Shuchi is originally from India and her work challenges dominant narratives around gender, sexuality, race and South Asian identity. Shuchi is also a writer / producer for documentaries. Recent credits include We Are: Brooklyn Saints for Netflix, and Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas for HBO, where one of Shuchi’s episodes was nominated for a GLAAD award.

Released in 2020, ‘A Period Piece’ follows main character Geetha, a control and order loving Indian-American woman who finally has sex with her lover Vehd one afternoon in her apartment, but things quickly turn messy when period blood stains her pristine couch and a fight erupts while they are having sex. The film has enjoyed nearly 2 years of a successful festival run, including being screened at our very own rePRO Film Fest, as well as SXSW in 2020. Dismantling stigma around menstruation starts with having open conversations and normalizing this very normal thing! 

If you haven’t already, subscribe to our monthly newsletter where you will get each episode of the pod straight to your inbox. Learn more at reprofilm.org or at @reprofilm The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

BONUS EPISODE: Interview with Co-Directors Maya Cueva and Leah Galant of ON THE DIVIDE

rePRO Film is proud to be a community partner of the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF). Audiences at the festival as well as our rePRO Periodical subscribers will have access to this episode, where Asha Dahya has a conversation with the filmmakers (Leah Galant and Maya Cueva) of the 2021 documentary: On The Divide. 

We all know how powerful films and documentaries are when it comes to changing hearts and minds through personal stories, giving audiences a glimpse into an issue where they can really put themselves in people’s shoes. That is exactly what ‘On The Divide’ does. 

This topic couldn’t be more timely right now, as we are on the precipice of seeing Roe v Wade overturned. So we had the chance to speak with co-directors Maya Cueva and Leah Galant who talked about making the film over 7 years, why they chose to highlight this particular community in the Rio Grande valley, and why Choice really is a matter of survival. 

SHOW NOTES:

• Watch ‘On The Divide’ during the Cleveland International Film Festival
  • CIFF46 Streams On Demand
    Sunday, April 10, 2022 at 11:00 AM - Sunday, April 17, 2022 at 11:59 PM
• onthedividemovie.com  |  @onthedividemovie  |  @onthedivide
• Sign up here for our free, monthly rePRO Periodical
• Follow us @reprofilmofficial • repro.buzzsprout.com • reprofilm.org

If you haven’t already, subscribe to our monthly newsletter where you will get each episode of the pod straight to your inbox. Learn more at reprofilm.org or at @reprofilm The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

rePRO PERIODICAL VOL. 03: Interview with Elaine Gracie, writer of ‘End-O’

Welcome to Part 2 of the rePRO Film Podcast episode for March, where we are celebrating endometriosis awareness month by highlighting this important issue through advocacy, education and of course, a brilliant short film. If you haven’t yet listened to part 1 of this month’s episode, be sure to make that next on your to-do list! 

In this interview, I’ll be speaking with Elaine Gracie, the writer of ‘End-O’, a short film out of the UK which was originally released in 2020 and has since gone on to win a bunch of awards and continue to screen at numerous film festivals in the UK and throughout the world. 

Since March is Endometriosis awareness month, the story and central topic, based on writer Elaine’s real life experience, is as relevant as ever, especially given the statistics that 1 in 10 women are living with endo. Elaine opens up to me about her debilitating, and at times absurd reality of living with endo, how she channeled her rage toward the medical system into an acclaimed short film, why she welcomes even the trolling comments, and the next exciting iteration of this film. This is hands down one of my favorite interviews of all time and once you’re done listening you will know why!

For the full transcript, please click here.

SHOW NOTES:

• END-O (Dir. Alice Seabright | Screenwriter, Elaine Gracie)
  • Watch on Vimeo
  • Follow on Instagram/Twitter: @endoshortfilm
• Elaine Gracie: @wee_egracie
• Listen to Part 1 of Episode featuring an interview with Jenne Rishe of The Endo Coalition
• Sign up for our free, monthly rePRO Periodical

If you haven’t already, subscribe to our monthly newsletter where you will get each episode of the pod straight to your inbox. Learn more at reprofilm.org or at @reprofilm The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

Interview with Endo Coalition's Jenneh Rishe

We’re all familiar with March being Women’s History Month, but did you know it is also Endometriosis awareness month? If you didn’t, don’t worry you certainly are not alone. In fact, despite the statistics that say 1 in 10 women in the US are living with endometriosis, many are suffering in silence. There are a number of reasons for this, ranging from lack of awareness, to misdiagnosis, and lack of funding for research toward endometriosis, all of which contribute to a widespread problem that deserves more education and amplification.

So this is our theme for the month, and I am super excited for our interviews in this periodical. It will actually be a two-part episode, and in this first part, I will be speaking with Jenneh Rishe, the founder and executive director of an advocacy organization called The Endometriosis Coalition. 

Jenneh has been a Registered Nurse for over a decade, working in internal medicine, trauma, kidney transplant, oncology, and leukemia/bone marrow transplant. It took over 4 years, but Jenneh's medical background gave her the knowledge and skills to navigate how to finally get good care after she was diagnosed with endometriosis. With her love for healthcare, education, and teaching, she felt inspired to use her abilities to help other women understand the disease better. She is also the author of Part of You, Not All of You: Shared Wisdom and Guided Journaling for Life With Chronic Illness.  Jenneh is originally from New Jersey, and lives in Los Angeles. When asked why she felt so passionately about starting the The Endometriosis Coalition, she says "endometriosis is criminally under researched and horribly misunderstood, and I want to be a part of changing that, sooner rather than later."

So let’s get into the discussion! 

SHOW NOTES:

• The Endometriosis Coalition - www.theendo.co  |  @theendo.co
• Jenneh Rishe – jennehrishe.com 
  • Part of You, Not All of You: Shared Wisdom and Guided Journaling for Life With Chronic Illness
• Listen to Part 2 featuring Elaine Gracie, screenwriter of End-O
• The rePRO Periodical – sign up at reprofilm.org

If you haven’t already, subscribe to our monthly newsletter where you will get each episode of the pod straight to your inbox. Learn more at reprofilm.org or at @reprofilm The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

Rebyrth's Cydney Tucker and Imani Byers

Welcome to  the rePRO Film Podcast series, hosted by Asha Dahya. If you haven’t already, sign up to the rePRO Periodical by heading to reprofilm.org where every month you will receive an email packed with repro goodies including this podcast interview, links to articles to keep you up to speed on the latest repro news, the link to watch the short film we are about to discuss, and of course some organizations you should be supporting right now. So let’s get into today’s interview and this month’s theme, Black Maternal Health. February is Black History Month in the United States, and we can’t talk about both the past and present of this country without looking at the pivotal role Black women have played in maternal healthcare and reproductive rights, and also the way Black women and Black bodies have been impacted. From the history of forced sterilization (which still happens in prisons today), to the very present problem of rising maternal mortality rates disproportionately impacting Black mothers, there is a reason why Reproductive Justice, a movement founded by Black women leaders in the 90’s, should be front and center in the larger effort for bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom today. And we will be discussing this.

Imani Byers is a full spectrum doula providing services in Atlanta & Savannah GA. She has a Masters in Public Health and Social Work and is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) in the State of Georgia. Imani is also a Certified Yoga Instructor, and placenta encapsulation specialist. As shared in the film and on her website, Imani answered the call to birth work as a descendant of birth attendants, and to date has assisted over 30 families on their individual journeys, since starting her business during the height of COVID. 

Be sure to listen all the way through to take note of some important action items toward the end. Now that we have all that housekeeping out of the way, please meet my guests!

If you haven’t already, subscribe to our monthly newsletter where you will get each episode of the pod straight to your inbox. Learn more at reprofilm.org or at @reprofilm The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!

This Is Not A Love Letter feat. Ariel Zucker, Daryl Paris Bright, and Isabel Pask

As we all know, we just ended 2021 on a very turbulent and uncertain note in terms of reproductive rights and specifically abortion access because of two very big Supreme Court cases involving Mississippi and Texas abortion laws. Now, while we wait for a ruling from this ultra-conservative court in June and as we look ahead to the midterms in November, there has never been a better time to double down on conversations around the need for reproductive justice and more specifically, using art and filmmaking as a tool for creating change and moving the needle. So now that you know, our vision for 2022, let's get into today's episode. While not all the films we covered this year will be about abortion per se. We thought it was a very fitting note to focus January's episode on this very topic with our first short film. This is not a love letter, especially given this month's 49th anniversary of Roe versus Wade, which sadly may very well be its last. There is talk that the landmark Supreme Court case from 1973, which legalized abortion in America, may not survive to see its 50th year in existence. So talking about the right to abortion access right now is important. Today, I'll (Asha Dahya) be speaking with director Ariel Zucker, producer Daryl Paris Bright, and poet Isabel Pask.

Click here for the full transcript + show notes.
Learn more about rePRO PERIODICAL (VOL. 01) by visiting reprofilm.org. View "THIS IS NOT A LOVE LETTER" on  YouTube.

If you haven’t already, subscribe to our monthly newsletter where you will get each episode of the pod straight to your inbox. Learn more at reprofilm.org or at @reprofilm The rePROFilm Podcast is executive produced by mamafilm. Looking forward to bringing you our next conversation!