“Standing in My Power gives us a unique view into diversity in the delivery room,” explains Finnish producer Kirsi Mattila (Icebreaker Productions) of her new doc project, directed by Karoliina Gröndahl and presented at Finnish Film Affair 2023. The film, currently in production, is budgeted at €224,000 with a mooted release date of this winter, 2023/24.
“The film introduces us to two childbirth professionals, both of whom work with hospitals as well as home births. Kirsi is a midwife whose practice merges medicine with a home-oriented attitude. Anna-Riitta is a doula (who offers emotional support) who sensitises us to the birthing rights of gender and sexual minorities.”
“I believe we need a film like Standing in My Power today because birth-givers’ right to self-determination is still not a given in our culture, and because many birth-givers still lack the awareness, motivation or courage necessary to demand their rights,” Mattila underlines.
The project notes make clear how, despite their similar starting points, Anna-Riitta and Kirsi are both fighting a battle of their own. Doula Anna-Riitta defends the rights of gender and sexual minorities through the Doula Academy that she has established, and finds it difficult to understand why the public has not understood that not all people giving birth are women by gender. Meanwhile, spirituality-loving Kirsi seems to be straddling two worlds: after hiding her home birth activism for years, she is ready to reveal her true colours and becomes a respected expert on home delivery among her colleagues.
“Considering that the number of births is currently at a historically low level; that more and more people suffer from fear of childbirth; that abuse during childbirth at hospitals is a fact; and that obstetric professionals have insufficient resources, the need to reform our culture of childbirth is pressing indeed. Childbirth is a huge physical and emotional event and it is time we gave it the value it deserves,” producer Mattila emphasises. At FFA, she is looking for sales representation, distribution and festivals.
The film is currently at the very creative post-production phase. “How can we express all the beauty, passion, sensuality and pain that is involved in birth giving, the creation of something new?” the producer ponders to BDE. “We are entering the most enjoyable stage of filmmaking, when the film begins to take form before our very eyes. When the soundscape, the music, the colours, everything becomes part of the process and ultimately come together in the finished film. We hope our film will get the festival premiere it deserves that will give it a wider audience, that the word will spread and the film will become a talking point.”
Mattila is equally effusive about director Karoliina Gröndahl. “[She] is an uncompromising, sincere and open-minded filmmaker who is totally committed to the project. Because she shoots the film herself, she has been able to get extraordinarily close to her main characters. The camera is for her an extension of her mind: the footage is intimate, poignant and sensual. Karoliina is able to capture not only the visible world, but also the underlying invisible reality filled with intense sensation. You can smell it, you can feel it, you can touch it. You hear it.”
The production team is currently determining the best concept for an impact campaign and is seeking funding accordingly. “We attended DocIMPACT last spring, where we established contacts with organisations and educational institutions. Childbirth and birth-giving is a topic that is currently being studied, and there is interest in it even in the Finnish parliament. The Kone Foundation is supporting a research project named ‘Battle over Birth,’ and a parliamentary group for the promotion of safe pregnancy and infancy is also tackling the same issues as our documentary.”
