Aftershock – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

AFTERSHOCK – Review by Martha K Baker

July 27, 2022September 19, 2022 Martha K. Baker Aftershock, Amber Isaac, Black Wombs Matter, davis guggenheim, documentaries, Lewis Lee, paula eiselt, Shamony Gibson

The searing documentary, Aftershock,” addresses the maternal health crisis suffered by Black women in the United States. The title refers to the horrors that follow a tsunami. St. Louisan Davis Guggenheim, who also directed An Inconvenient Truth, executive produced Aftershock. In the angry, righteous hands of the directors, Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt, Aftershock is compelling.

Festivals Reviews

AFTERSHOCK (SXSW 2022) – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

March 14, 2022March 18, 2022 Valerie Kalfrin Aftershock, documentaries, Dr. Neel Shah, maternal mortality rate, Omari Maynard, paula eiselt, sxsw 2022, Tonya Lewis Lee

Aftershock takes viewers through an abbreviated history of gynecology, with racism intrinsic in examinations of and procedures on black slaves, and reveals astonishing statistics. Nationwide, C-sections have grown from about 6% in 1970 to 32% in 2019. Black mothers’ mortality rates likewise have grown, doubling from 22% in 1995 to 44% in 2019. Part of the problem is the industrialization of medicine—it’s quicker to perform a Cesarean section than a vaginal delivery but also more lucrative for hospitals, which can receive a greater insurance payout for this surgery, the film notes.

Festivals Reviews

AFTERSHOCK (Sundance FF 2022) – Review by Leslie Combemale

January 25, 2022January 29, 2022 Leslie Combemale Aftershock, Amber Rose Isaac, Black Maternal Omnibus Bill, documentary, Felicia Ellis, Neel Shaw, paula eiselt, Shamony Gibson, sundance film festival 2022, Tonya Lewis Lee

There’s an epidemic that has been raging way longer than the COVID pandemic. It’s the maternal mortality rate of Black women in this country. The statement in co-directors Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee’s new documentary Aftershock by Black mother-to-be Felicia Ellis says it all. “A Black woman having a baby is like a Black man at a traffic stop with the police.”