New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) & Metrograph invite you to a screening of Never Rarely Sometimes Always at the Metrograph on May 17th at 7:00pm ET. This screening is part of a women’s reproductive health retrospective curated by Emma Myers. Learn more about the series below.
50% Of All Proceeds From Ticket Sales To Go Towards NARAL Pro-Choice America and Additional U.S. Reproductive Rights Organizations
Eschewing polemics, Eliza Hittman presents a heartbreakingly straightforward account of Autumn (Sidney Flanigan), a Pennsylvania teen whose home state’s requirement of parental consent for abortions necessitates a clandestine journey to New York City to terminate her pregnancy. With minimal funds and no responsible adults on their side, Autumn and her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder) must navigate the metropolis, relying only on their instincts and trust in one another. Two screen debuts for the ages, with Flanigan’s halting answers to the Planned Parenthood questionnaire that inspires the film’s title a scene of unforgettable vulnerability and release.
About the Retrospective
IT HAPPENS TO US: ABORTION IN AMERICAN FILM
“As women’s bodily autonomy is being stripped away by American legislation, the right to a safe and legal abortion is once again a personal and political battleground. Oft considered a ‘taboo’ subject, abortion has in fact been portrayed in film for just about as long as the medium itself. Spanning the silent era to the present day, this series surveys depictions of unintended pregnancy in American narrative cinema, from Josef von Sternberg’s dark pre-Code drama An American Tragedy (1931), to the iconic ’80s rom-com Dirty Dancing, to Eliza Hittman’s indie hit Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020). Whether fraught with or free of moral judgment, these stories reflect, and other times oppose, the prevailing politics and mores of their time.”—Emma Myers, series curator
The series will be accompanied by a documentary shorts sidebar, including It Happens to Us by Amalie R. Rothschild, and more.
“In the wake of the Roe v. Wade news, this series is now more timely than anyone could have ever imagined. Looking at abortion stories on American screens over a 100-year period makes it clear that restricting safe and legal access to abortion does not prevent abortion, it only endangers women’s lives. These films remind us of the myriad ways that the legal, medical, and political systems have failed women over the years; they also illustrate that women have always needed, wanted, sought, discussed, self-induced, and received abortions. Abortion is not taboo: it’s a basic human right.”–Emma Myers, series curator
50% Of All Proceeds From Ticket Sales To Go Towards NARAL Pro-Choice America And Additional U.S. Reproductive Rights Organizations
Visit NARAL to find out more about ways to donate and help women across America have affordable access to abortion and support reproductive rights.
Date: Tuesday, May 17th, 2022
Time: 7:00 pm ET
Location: Metrograph – 7 Ludlow St, New York, NY 10002
Cost: $17
Panelists
Eliza Hittman is an award-winning filmmaker, born and based in Brooklyn, NY. Her last film Beach Rats premiered in the US Dramatic Competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, where she won the Directing Award. It premiered internationally at Locarno in the Golden Leopard Competition and was the Centerpiece Film at New Directors / New Films. Beach Rats was released domestically by NEON Rated, and was a New York Times Critics’ Pick. It was the winner of the Artios Award for Outstanding Achievement in Casting, Outstanding Screenwriting in a U.S. Feature at Outfest, and the London Critics’ Circle Film Award for Young British/Irish Performer of the Year. In 2018, it was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Male Lead at the Independent Spirit awards and a Breakthrough Actor Award for the Gothams Awards. Her micro-budget feature film It Felt Like Love premiered at Sundance in 2013 in NEXT and was a New York Times Critic’s Pick. She earned an MFA from California Institute of the Arts and is currently an Assistant Professor of Film/Video at Pratt Institute. She is the recipient of the Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center, and a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow.
Mara Webster (moderator) is a programmer, producer, content curator, moderator and interviewer. She is the Co-Founder and Head of Programming for In Creative Company, a year round digital talk series focusing on in depth craft driven discussions around the creative process across film, television, theater and the arts. Prior to this her most recent role was programming, producing and moderating screenings and talks at SAG-AFTRA Foundation both in person and online. She has also moderated numerous panels for other companies including Netflix, AppleTV+, HBO, IFC Films, BAFTA and numerous film festival Q&A’s. In her time as Director of Panels & Special Events and an Associate Programmer at Tribeca Film Festival she grew the talks program creating new strands of programming in film, tv, theater, VR and music and produced the inaugural TIME’S UP conference. At Tribeca she was involved in programming feature films and tv where she helped to launch television into both the festivals main slate and contributed to the creation of the Tribeca TV Festival. She has worked in key roles with numerous events including Vulture Festival, Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival, Nantucket Film Festival and Sundance. She currently consults as an Associate Programmer in Features & Episodic for Sundance and for The New York Times events team. Born and raised in England by a Texan and a Scot, she now calls New York home!
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NYWIFT programs, screenings and events are supported, in part, by grants from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
