Basic-rights-explanation by Diana Whitten, The Netherlands 2014
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3311588/?ref_=nm_knf_i1
In 2001, a Dutch doctor volunteering for Greenpeace discovered the horrific figures of women endangering their lives due to illegal abortions worldwide. As a solution, she decides to offer legal abortions on her organization’s ship, on international water, 12 nautical miles offshore from countries where abortion still is illegal. Their efforts are constantly hindered by uncooperative governments and picketers, and as such, they expand their mission to include information, campaigns and education.
Rebecca Gomperts, the founder of http://www.womenonwaves.org/ is a strong, dedicated woman, and her on screen personality is equally strong. The subject of the documentary is, at least to this viewer, one of the more poignant example of how religion causes unnecessary pain and suffering in a question which has one very clear answer, an answer that much of the world have failed to grasp. And as such it’s easy to side with the director and her subjects, making for a gripping and highly interesting film. It shows that hands-on efforts and, to an even higher degree, information and education really can make a difference for the hundreds of thousands who are shunned by society or suffering pain or death due to illegal abortions every year.
Bechdel test: Pass
5 ports of 6
