Presented in the US Documentary Competition, Paula Eiselt & Tonya Lewis Lee’s Aftershock is an urgent, sensitive and meticulously-crafted story of injustice and resilience.
As the 2022 Sundance Film Festival continues to unfold, we attended the World Premiere of an important and brilliantly executed documentary, Aftershock, directed by co-directors Paula Eiselt & Tonya Lewis Lee, and presented in the US Documentary Competition, alongside titles such as the excellent Fire of Love, or the problematic Jihad Rehab.
Emotional from second one, Aftershock is a meticulous piece of filmmaking which pays tribute to the resilience and humanity of its characters, while laying bare an appalling reality: an alarmingly disproportionate number of Black women are failed every year by the U.S. maternal health system.
The premise of the film stands strong and deeply emotional. Against a moving musical backdrop – “Sad Day” by FKA Twigs, footage of Shamony Gibson, a vibrant, excited mother-to-be illuminate the screen. These images are full of life, lightness and love. Without any transition, the film cuts to the celebration of Shamony’s 31st birthday, about four months after she gave birth. But Shamony is not here to celebrate with her friends and family, because she passed away a few days after giving birth, due to complications…
In the wake of this heartbreaking revelation, the film meets Shamony’s partner who accuses the hospital of negligence. The film aptly pieces together elements, and data, to objectively confirm that Shamony died due to a lack of care on behalf of the hospital staff. “All of her concerns were being taken lightly. […] There was no sense of urgency on their part,” her partner says. This feeling of injustice is compounded by the fact that we meet another young man in the same circumstance, whose partner, Amber Rose Isaac, died shortly after giving birth. He claims, “They neglected her until it was too late.”
Following this brutally moving opening punch, the film folds in a beautifully metaphorical scene, announcing the program of Aftershock: both devastated newly single fathers meet, share their “many levels of frustration” they feel, and decide to go for a run. Despite what they went through, they are still standing. And more significantly, they are running. They have made their decision: they are going to fight. “You gotta keep running!” as exclaims one of them.
Then, from those particular situations, co-directors Paula Eiselt & Tonya Lewis Lee then meticulously build a solid piece of reportage, bringing data, experts and knowledge, to give us a sense of how important this ignored, maternal health crisis is in the United States. Every scene includes another shocking discovery, another suspicious occurrence, so the viewer seems to be getting more and more pieces of an increasingly alarming puzzle. One learns for example that “Black women are four times more likely to die than their white counterparts with the same symptoms”. What the film brilliantly and poignantly does it is to lay bare the endemic racism raging across hospitals and society. As the film explores the functioning of maternal health services in several hospitals, and throughout history, it exposes the unseen wing of a broken system. With mastery, precision and sensitivity, the film raises awareness on this social emergency.
On top of shedding a much-needed light on the dramatic effects of endemic racism at hospitals, the film also pays a heartfelt tribute to its remarkably resilient characters, grappling with the unfair death of their loved ones. “Shamony lives through me being an activist and a revolutionary,” her mother says. The film chronicles the creation of an entire community of the victims of the maternal health crisis across the US. Though collective action, they manage to get their voices heard, and attract nation-wide media coverage.
With dignity, humanity and careful craftsmanship, co-directors Paula Eiselt & Tonya Lewis Lee deliver not only a film which deserves to sweep off the Best Directing Award from the documentary category at Sundance, but also an urgent film which must be seen by the widest audience possible.
Thanks to directors’ multilayered, thorough work, one walks away from the film both heartbroken, and inspired by an incredible vital energy, the one we got from the amazing, resilient characters fighting for human rights.
Grade: 5/5.
