Big Muddy Film Festival - Maternity Test Film Screening

Yesterday at the Big Muddy Film Festival I saw a series of alternative short films. The one that impressed me the most was Maternity Test by Irene Lusztig. In this film several women perform a reading that is comprised of online forum posts from mothering.com. The script outlines the feelings of a mother as she undergoes a C-section birth.

It took me a few minutes before I realized the women were all performing the same script. This was because of the way it was edited in that it cut from one woman to the next and gave the impression that each person was sharing a personal story but that all the women had a similar experience. After a while their phrases started matching and I realized it was a script being performed. At first this was a bit off putting. The script was well written and powerful, but once I learned it was prepared for the women to read it started to loose some of its power for me.

However, at the end of the reading the filmmaker asked the women different questions about the reading or about their experiences with child birth. Their real responses were very moving and gave me much to think about.

I am intrigued by this film's style that features only "talking heads" or basically interviews cut and edited side-by-side. There is no music or other sound design elements and that would usually be boring to me but this film is strong enough on its own because the script and editing is interesting and engaging.

If I had to list one issue that I have with the film it would be way in which the script and performance paint hospitals and their staff in a bad light. Some of the text reads as if the doctors and nurses were indifferent and cold to the feelings of the mother and almost as if THEY robbed the mother from the experience of giving birth. Having never gone through childbirth I can not say I can fully understand what these mothers have gone through. But, knowing many doctors and nurses and having had the opportunity to film a C-section labor, I've witnessed that the medical staff are very caring and only did a C-section birth because it was absolutely necessary for the wellbeing of the mother and the child.

With all this in mind, I consider this film very successful because in spite of the way it negatively paints modern medicine it does a brilliant job of drawing attention to the deep-seeded insecurities that many women face when it comes to being a mother.