Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.
$5 suggested donation
The Pro-Choice Foundation presents
(1995, 57 min.)
A brief reception will follow the screening.
Leona's Sister Gerri tells the dramatic story of Gerri Santoro, a mother of two and the real person in the now famous photo of an "anonymous woman" on a motel floor, dead from an illegal abortion. Reprinted thousands of times on placards, and in the media, this grisly photo became a pro-choice icon. Should the media have used this image? What circumstances led to Gerri's tragic death? Powerfully addressing issues of reproductive rights and domestic violence, Leona's Sister Gerri is a moving portrait of Gerri Santoro's life and society's response to her death.
"We knew the corpse—naked and abject—but we never knew the [life], or we didn't until Leona's Sister Gerri, Jane Gillooly's searingly effective study of an infamous photograph and how it came into being. Patiently piecing together the facts behind this wrenching image, Gillooly brings a wide breadth of understanding to the tragedy she uncovers.
"Forceful, intimate, unpretentious and devastating" (Janet Maslin, New York Times).
"Truly remarkable" (John Leonard, New York Magazine).
"A thoughtful, dignified and intensely moving documentary" (The Nation).
"Transfixing tale of an unwilling symbol. Without taking sides in the abortion debate, Leona's Sister Gerri is a straightforward, tragic biography of one of the women behind the statistics" (Howard Rosenberg, Los Angeles Times).
"Leona's Sister Gerri makes what might have been an effective abortion rights polemic into something greater" (Frederick M. Biddle, Boston Globe).
"Unusually thoughtful and thought provoking. The film is a superb documentary layered with stories and emotions" (Jonathan Storm, Philadelphia Inquirer).
"Fleshing out the life behind a now iconic image [the film] makes the political personal, the abstract particular and in so doing uncover layers of humanity often missing in political rhetoric" (Madeline Drexler, Boston Globe Magazine).
"Provocative and intelligent inquiry into the life of Gerri Santoro" (Robin Dougherty, Miami Herald).
"Puts a human face and dimension on this symbol of lonesome tragedy. It's a messy tale, grim and common, told with uncommon restraint" (Matt Rush, USA Today).
