Dorothy Fadiman

A collection of first person stories which reveal the physical, emotional and legal consequences of having or providing an abortion when it was a criminal act.

A DARING JOURNEY: From Immigration to Education follows three stories about two individuals and a couple who risked their lives to cross the border from Mexico to the United States. The film begins with each giving a vivid description of the journey and then explores their struggles to earn a living in the shadows of the U.S. immigration system. We follow their stories as they pursue their dreams. They all seek higher education. These three stories present a microcosm of the realities that many immigrants experience once they arrive in the United States: working hard to survive without legal status and then pursuing education so that they and their children are better able to address the challenges in their futures with better tools and more options.

The Fragile Promise of Choice: Abortion in the United States Today is a documentary film by Dorothy Fadiman which examines abortion rights and access in the U.S. in 1996 which was 23 years after the legislative decision, Roe vs. Wade. Dorothy narrated the film which featured interviews with abortion care providers and news clips, including one of Dr. George Tiller. It is last of three films called the Trilogy on Reproductive Rights or the From the Back-Alleys to the Supreme Court & Beyond Trilogy.

The film weaves together two parallel stories: the evolution of underground networks that helped women find safe abortions outside the law, and the intensive efforts by activists and legislators to decriminalize abortion through legislative and judicial channels. This film combines rare archival footage with interviews that document the courageous efforts of those who fought to break the silence, change the laws and end the shame which surrounded abortion when it was a crime. The film is the second of the Abortion Rights Film Trilogy.

For more than thirty years, exit polls accurately predicted election results. Over the last ten years that reliability has disappeared. What's going on? The last two presidential elections both came down to a relatively small number of votes, and in both elections the integrity of the voting process has been called into question. With the upcoming election looking to be similarly close, the time has come to ask the questions: What happened in 2000 and 2004? What, if anything, has changed since?

The Experience of Light is a 1978 short film created and narrated by filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman. The film documents the presence of light as a universal symbol for "Spirit", to people from many cultures.

Through first person stories, this documentary brings alive the history of the struggle for women's reproductive rights in the United States. Intimate interviews reveal the passion of those who moved abortion from the danger of the back alleys to a safe, legal choice. This film also includes information about current threats to those rights.

CELEBRATION re-enacts the symbolic union between male and female forces within one individual. Unique special effects recreate the inner experience of transformation through original music, images, and dance. The resulting union gives birth to a vibrant, integrated sense of Self.

This documentary profiles the determination of a profoundly deaf boy and his family, as he grows from an early, silent childhood to graduating from The Culinary Institute of America and becoming an award-winning chef at his own trend-setting restaurant.

PEACE: A Conscious Choice was produced during the Cold War (1982), seven years before the Berlin Wall fell (1989). This short animated film underscores the importance of dialogue which leads to understanding between nations that are on the brink of attacking each other. The film emphasizes, using both Russian and English languages, that the first step toward peace is communication. The purpose of the film, was to encourage the United States and the Soviet Union to understand that the destinies of their countries were inextricably related. The film underscores that their relationship has implications for world peace.

Excerpts from the film "From Danger to Dignity: The Fight for Safe Abortion"

Butterfly Town, USA follows a community of activists living in Pacific Grove, who are working together to restore the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary.