WOMENSTRUATE
Directed by Lauren Anders Brown
Running Time: 52 minutes
Production status: Distributed by Bubble Media
Synopsis: A documentary featuring five women of different generations across Africa discussing their experiences of their menstrual cycle throughout the cycle of life.
The film opens with Sunday, a teenager in South Sudan who is barely a woman has to prepare for what is to come - menstruation and the probability of child marriage. In Eswatini, a woman just wants to be like everyone else - bleeding normally every month. But for someone with HIV that is not the reality. Vitoria's accounts of how while experiencing her monthly cycle she survived Cyclone Idai in Mozambique. Bernice faces challenges of choosing food or menstrual supplies while on the streets in South Africa. In Zimbabwe, Christina a former convict discusses her life behind bars while bleeding. And finally, we hear from Dr. Lineo how post-menstrual women are affected by menopause in Africa- and the ending has quite a twist.
This documentary is unique in that it has a holistic approach- it will be filmed in 4-7 days, the average time a women menstruates every month and with an all female crew. On any given day 800 million women are menstruating, and through normalising menstruation by making it visible through filmmaking that it can be addressed as a natural part of life by both men and women worldwide.
CROWDFUNDING: You will see to the right different donation options to help finish this film. The film was made possible through in-kind support from UNFPA, and the director's own time. It needs funding to pay for an original composition score and sound design. Please consider donating he amount suggested directly to the director through paypal and you will be contacted about the corresponding incentive.
CUTTING LIFE
As a surgeon, imagine not being able to trust your own instruments to operate on a patient?
A follow up the award winning documentary The Checklist Effect, this piece looks at how industrialization and globalization effect medical equipment. Cutting Life follows two NHS surgeons as they seek to discover how and why low and middle income countries are being forced to operate with broken, rusted, poor quality surgical instruments. Working alongside the hospitals and surgeons they visit, they will see through the production of a surgical instrument tray that is affordable, high quality, and appropriate to perform basic life saving procedures and improve patient safety globally-because what is a surgeon without his or her instruments?
EXPECTED RUNNING TIME: 52 minutes
PRODUCTION STATUS: In production, seeking funding
PRODUCTION LOCATIONS: Ethiopia, Cambodia, UK, Haiti, Kenya, Honduras and other locations TBD
ANONYMOUS SYRIA
Directed by Ali Al Ibrahim and Lauren Anders Brown
Production status: 30% principal photography completed
Estimated completion for principal photography: December 2019
Funding: Initial production funding costs split between the directors.
Synopsis: In a conflict that has lasted over a decade, displaced Syrians have been forced to move on and start again. Yet when a country shuts down, so too do the official touchstones that make us human. This feature documentary will explore the lives of Syria’s ‘living ghosts’ - undocumented citizens who have survived the war with no proof that they are alive, married, educated or even dead.