Educational Media Reviews Online

In France 1973 there was a coordinated effort by the Groupe Information Santé (GIS) to decenter the medical profession’s power over people’s bodies and give that power back to the people in the form of education and knowledge that would allow them to control their own bodies. Stories of A documents this effort and focuses on abortion, one of the three major campaigns that GIS concentrated on (the other two being factory worker health and immigrant health). GIS had a goal of dismantling the artificial divide between scientific knowledge and the everyday practice of medicine; to that end they trained people on the aspiration abortion procedure, which did not require anesthesia and could be performed safely in less than 30 minutes.

Filmed over April and May 1973, Stories of A uses protest footage, newspaper articles, and interviews to connect class struggle with the struggle to legalize abortion. The French medical establishment lashed out at the publication of a letter in February 1973 signed by 331 doctors stating they had performed illegal abortions and calling for contraceptives to be freely available to everyone, including minors; the Health Minister was appalled that this letter was published during an election period. The political uproar resulted in widespread protests and marches.

Filmmakers interview mothers of multiple children along with a few couples. The women felt trapped by their lack of reproductive choices and resulting pregnancies; one woman mentioned being caught up in a cycle of “compulsory and unavoidable motherhood.” One of the most striking segments in the film is when a doctor performs an aspiration abortion on a woman while her partner is in the room with her. The doctor patiently explains each step of the procedure in plain language, shows the woman the instruments used and lets her hold them, and answers questions; her partner is part of the entire process, standing right next to the procedure table. The segment is not graphic or sensationalistic; when the procedure is over, she and her partner walk out of the building together and drive away. A young high school student is also interviewed. She resides in a facility for unwed mothers and attends classes during the day, then takes care of her baby at night. She describes how the young mothers in the facility have a lot of interpersonal conflict and how she longs to move out of the facility.

Stories of A is in French with subtitles and was filmed in black and white. The music is discordant and disorienting, possibly mirroring the claustrophobia and distress interviewees felt when speaking about feeling trapped within motherhood. As the education campaigns began to work however, the change in women's demeanor is pronounced: There is a palpable sense of relief as bodily autonomy options were explored and explained without using medical jargon or judgment. Viewers can see and feel the relief on their faces.

The issue of abortion is framed within a network of economic reality, family planning, and the fight to legalize contraception; all of those elements converge in the battle to ensure women and families have the information and legal rights they need to make reproductive choices that work for their situations. Stories of A succeeds in showing the grim reality of women who were suffering under a government that didn’t allow them to control their own reproductive lives, but the film lacked some necessary historical context and cohesion regarding the overarching big picture of GIS and their campaign goals. For this reason, I would recommend this film with reservations.

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