Educational Media Reviews Online

Humor is often employed to defuse fraught situations as well as mock people in power who seek to impose dodgy laws on their constituents. It is an arguably effective technique for disarming the opposition. The documentary, No One Asked You, follows a group of reproductive rights activists/comedians who set up a comedy road trip called the “Vagical Mystery Tour” to support abortion clinics and providers across the country as the pro-life movement approaches their long-plotted end goal of overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The leader is Liz Winstead, a comedian who helped create the Daily Show and who came to her abortion rights convictions from a personal abortion experience as a teenager. The film accompanies this fearless and, yes, funny crew as they travel around visiting local clinics to cheer up and support the often-beleaguered staff there (especially in red states), occasionally infiltrating crisis pregnancy centers as well to find out what exactly they’re telling patients. They also provide comedy shows as fundraisers for clinics and reproductive rights organizations in the towns they visit, entertaining audiences and dispelling abortion stigma as they go.

In the six-year timespan covered by the film, incorporating flashbacks to earlier footage and related current events, the country’s generally anxious mood (not helped by the interruption of a pandemic) reaches a fever pitch by the time the Dobbs case is taken up by the Supreme Court. Still the Vagical Mystery Tour soldiers on, bringing its brand of spunky, provocative joy as a never-surrender antidote to the despair of the eventual Dobbs decision. No One Asked You would make an excellent discussion piece for feminist and political scientist audiences.

Awards:
Audience Award Runner Up at DOC NYC 2023; Best Documentary Jury Prize San Francisco IndieFest; Best Woman Director at DC Independent Film Forum; Honorable Mention Best Documentary at Omaha Film Festival; Honorable Mention Best Documentary at Oxford Film Festival

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