Courtney Stephens 纪录片《Lesser Choices》:母亲 1969 年赴墨西哥城寻求堕胎的回忆
Lesser choices
洛杉矶电影人 Courtney Stephens 在 2022 年的《Lesser Choices》中采访母亲 Estelle,回忆其 1969 年在罗诉韦德案判决前赴墨西哥城找秘密提供者堕胎的经历。Stephens 将访谈音频与墨西哥城 Super 8 影像并置,在怀旧家庭录像质感与创伤记忆之间制造张力,呈现母亲既恐惧过程本身、又在自主决定何时及以何种条件组建家庭中找到自由这两重真相。
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In Lesser Choices (2022), the Los Angeles-based filmmaker Courtney Stephens interviews her mother, Estelle, as she recalls the experience of seeking an abortion in 1969. This was before the US Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v Wade established a constitutional right to abortion in 1973 and, of course, well before that decision was overturned in 2022. Like many women at the time, Estelle found her answer in a clandestine provider in Mexico City – a process that, to her, proved that she was ‘willing to do anything to not be pregnant’.
Stephens pairs the interview audio with Super 8 images of Mexico City, building a tension between the nostalgic, home-movie aesthetic and the traumatic memories recounted in their conversation. In doing so, she reveals two contrasting truths in her mother’s story: her fear of the process itself, and the freedom she found in choosing when, and on what terms, to grow her family. For more from Stephens, watch her short Ida Western Exile.
来源:Psyche · psyche.co