12/12/05
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY (AND WISELY).

THE ABORTION DIARIES: Touring in 2006 To Celebrate Roe v. Wade

Contact: Penny Lane, penny@...
www.theabortiondiaries.com

The Abortion Diaries is a new documentary that gives voice to an
important but silenced community: women who have had abortions. Over a
million American women will have an abortion each year. The Abortion
Diaries, directed by 27-year-old Penny Lane, dispels the stigma of
abortion by presenting the abortion stories of twelve diverse women.
Their stories weave together with Lane's own diary entries to present a
compelling, intimate and at times surprisingly funny "dinner party"
where the audience is invited to hear what women say behind closed doors
about sex, love, careers, motherhood, medical technology, spirituality
and their own bodies.

In honor of the 33rd anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision
(January 22), any organization who would like to screen The Abortion
Diaries between January 21 and January 31, 2006 will be able to do so
without paying for rental/screening fees.

Imagine hundreds of communities all across the US ... and thousands of
people discussing what reproductive freedom really means in their lives.
The Abortion Diaries is an important, engaging and timely contribution
to this discussion -- now more than ever.

The only rules are as follows:

1. A DVD copy of the film must be purchased ($50.00 for an organization).
2. Ms. Lane must be notified about the screening in advance.
3. The screening fee waiver only applies to events occuring between
January 21 - January 31, 2006.
4. The organization must be willing to sell copies of the DVDs and
return proceeds within 30 days of the event.

Contact me if you are interested in hosting a screening in your
community. I am often available to appear at screenings as well, and I
always enjoy doing it.

The Abortion Diaries clocks in at 30 minutes, making it the perfect
length for the lively discussion that is sure to ensue after each
screening. The Abortion Diaries has already attracted attention from
Salon and Alternet, and public screenings are planned in San Antonio,
Knoxville, Austin, NYC, Seattle, Durham, Columbus, San Francisco,
Albany, Poughkeepsie, Binghamton, and many other places big and small.
The film earned rave reviews at its film festival premiere at AFI FEST
in Los Angeles this November and has been picked up by Free Speech TV
for national broadcast in 2006.

+++Resources for holding a successful screening and discussion can be
found on www.theabortiondiaries.com

+++Advance praise for The Abortion Diaries

"A critical tear in the shroud behind which we hide the lives and
feelings of thousands of women who choose abortion each year to end an
unintended and unwanted pregnancy."
- Blue Carreker, Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood

"These are the voices that have been missing in the national
conversation about abortion."
-Claire Keyes, Allegheny Reproductive Health Center

"Penny Lane's work acknowledges that abortion happens and helps to
destigmatize the choice."

- Katy Stevenson, Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood


+++Statement of Director Penny Lane

I began this film as a way to deal with my own abortion. When I put
out a call for interviews, my inbox was flooded with responses. It
seemed that women everywhere wanted to tell their stories, but were
afraid that nobody wanted to hear them. This response only
strengthened my resolve to make this film.

I traveled around the East Coast of the U.S. with a small crew in a
beat-up station wagon borrowed from my D.P.’s parents. Each story I
heard inspired me and enlightened me in new ways. I wanted to keep my
own voyage of discovery as a central part of the film, so I decided to
include passages from my own “abortion diary” as a guiding structure
throughout the interviews.

My hope is that people who watch the film will see their mothers, their
sisters, girlfriends and selves in the faces of these women. I hope
they will realize that abortion is not just a political issue used to
divide us, but something that affects us all and needs to be discussed
much more openly.


+++About Penny Lane

Penny Lane is an independent filmmaker living in upstate New York. Her
video art and documentary works have screened at San Francisco Int’l
Film Festival, Rotterdam Int’l Film Festival, MOMA, Seattle Int’l Film
Festival, Athens Int’l Film Festival, Women in the Director’s Chair,
Santa Fe Art Institute, Anthology Film Archives and in grungy DIY
microcinemas and festivals all over. She is also a core producer of
the Hudson-Mohawk Independent Media Center where she works with a
collective of other independent mediamakers to challenge the
assumptions and biases of mainstream media.


+++Additional Information and Press Links:

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?category=&storyID=409594&BCCode=&newsdate=10/17/2005
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2004/09/20/t_shirts/index_np.html
http://www.sfist.com/archives/2005/04/28/
feeling_guilty_about_not_feeling_guilty.php
http://www.alternet.org/rights/22112/
http://www.abortionconversation.com