Student filmmakers can apply for funding for reproductive rights work.
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Student filmmakers can apply for funding for reproductive rights work.
bjones27 / Getty Images
A new grant program announced on Wednesday by Annenberg Inclusive Initiativea consulting organization based at the University of Southern California that studies diversity and inclusion in the entertainment industry, to assist undergrad filmmakers whose work focuses on reproductive rights.
According to a statement shared with NPR, the “Repeletive Rights Accelerator” program will provide a minimum of three students with $25,000 in grants each to assist with script development and short film production.
“Too few stories focus on these topics, and they rarely come from young people,” the initiative’s founder Stacy Smith wrote in an email. “We want the generation that will be most affected by current reproductive health policies to have a chance to understand how these policies affect them.”
Smith said her organization is planning to reach out to students through social media and to reach film schools. She added that any high school film in the US can apply for funding. Applications will open in September and winners will be selected in late fall.
“Undergraduates have important stories to tell, but often have limited ways to tell them,” says Smith. “This program will help change that.”
Movies dealing with abortion are not a new phenomenon. For example, silent movies Where is my child? handle the subject in a way that goes back to 1916. But the genre has exploded in recent times. The Sundance Film Festival films about reproductive rights are defined as “a clear theme“in 2022, with movies like Going on, Midwives and Janes appeared in this year’s festival lineup. And the organization released a statement on social media about to show more such films in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn federal abortion rights.
Supporters of the sponsorship program point to the importance of the entertainment industry as a tool to highlight important issues surrounding human rights.
Caren Spruch, national director of arts and entertainment for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said: “The entertainment community plays an important role in educating people about sexual health and rights and their reproduction, including abortion. “With Roe v. Wade overturned and birth control, LGBTQ+ and other rights at stake, this new Annenberg Inclusion Initiative project will provide an invaluable tool to secure audiences access to medically and legally correct storytelling about these issues.”
