Educational Media Reviews Online

Vessel tells the story of Women on Waves, an organization that provides safe abortions at sea. In order to get around abortion restrictions, Women on Waves sails all around the world, bringing women on board and taking them 12 miles offshore into international waters. There they provide pills to perform safe abortions. Reactions to their ship arriving are often violent and disturbing. The volunteers aboard are called fascists and terrorists and physically attacked. In Spain there is a literal tug of war with the ship.

Vessel documents Women on Waves from inception to expansion. Animation and real women's testimonies are incorporated. The reasons for needing an abortion are wide ranging. It’s a tense, heartbreaking film but demonstrates what women can accomplish when banding together. When anti-abortion groups announce that they will release the names of women who get on the ship, large groups of volunteers descend on the boat to cause confusion and aid in women remaining anonymous. One of the themes of the film is control: Who has control of boats, oceans, ports, medicine, pharmacies, laws, and women’s bodies. So much of the conflict Women on Waves comes up against is tied up in what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a mother, and what constitutes motherhood.

Women on Waves has collaborated on trainings in 23 countries and continues to train local groups around the world. Protestors may be able to stop a ship, but they cannot stop the internet. Women on Waves has since grown to include an online presence, Women on Web, where there are instructions on how to perform a safe abortion at home using the common drug Misoprostol.

Appropriate for medical, academic and public library collections.

Awards

• Special Jury Recognition for Political Courage SXSW Film Festival 2014
• Audience Award Documentary Feature SXSW Film Festival 2014
• Adrienne SHelly Award for Excellence in Filmmaking Nantucket Film Festival 2014
• Peter Wintonick Award Sheffield Doc/Fest 2014