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By kate, April 19, 2012 11:33 pm

I am screening a rough-cut of my film on Monday!!!!

Film Flyer

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By kate, March 8, 2012 11:07 am

This Bad Romance parody pay homage to Alice Paul who played a huge role in gaining women the vote & is, in my opinion, the most distinguished and amazing person ever to graduate from my law school! SO many reasons to love this video. God bless the internet and people with lots of creativity & time on their hands!

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By kate, June 15, 2011 4:43 pm

Anne sent me this pic of our niece Lily playing with the doll we gave her for her birthday. It’s a Little Thinkers Frida Kahlo doll. The unibrow is amazing.

We also got her a Jane Addams doll at the Hull House in Chicago. It is priceless.

Barbies are dead!

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By kate, April 27, 2011 5:27 am

My dear friend Briana passed away on Saturday.

I feel privileged to have known Briana, and been able to record some of her powerful words about herself and her calling as a direct entry midwife. Neil and I made this film to honor the power of her words and wisdom.

Briana’s Words, Briana’s Wisdom from Kate and Neil on Vimeo.

I met Briana through another close friend while we were all mucking through undergrad at BYU. She was such an intriguing presence to me. While my friend Amy and I were prone to silliness, loud laughter and ostentatious hi-jinks in those our early 20s, Briana brought a somber and present maturity to our conversations. While we might have attempted to laugh through our sorrows, Briana processed everything in an amazing way and in such depth that I was drawn to her.

We called her Breezer.

When Amy went on to marry in 2005, Briana and I turned to each other more and more to lean on. As our friendship began to deepen, I of course, learned more and more about her passion: midwifery and birthing at home.

There are few people who devote the entirety of their lives to one cause in the natural and easy way that Briana did.   That devotion and what she accomplished in helping fight for women’s right and ability to birth at home are remarkable. When she talked of midwifery, she spoke of power, politics, love, empowerment and referred to her role as a midwife as a calling.

Briana had an amazing intuition for helping women.

I introduced her to my sister in law Laura. After meeting Breezer she decided to choose a home birth, even though (or perhaps due to the fact) she herself is a PA, and has worked in labor and delivery at a hospital. As a result of this joyous union, June Ransom was born at home, on our orange couch with Breezer there to catch her.

I trusted her with my family.

So many trusted her with the very beginning of their families.

When I connected her to my friend Ashley this past summer, she became Ashley’s midwife and I began to document them both for a film project for my Feminist Jurisprudence class. These past few months, we have visited, talked endlessly on the phone and really been able to connect as intellectual Mormon women.

Breezer,

I know that you wanted to start studying graphic design, and move to San Franscico or DC or Texas. I know that you wanted to find a man to love, and be witness to the birth of your own babies.

We talked endlessly into the night of summer trips to Costa Rica, and our future street where we would be neighbors and friends forever into adulthood.

I am so, so sad that you are gone.

I want to see your art, be your neighbor, and have you catch my babies.

I want to talk to you just one more time to tell you what an irreplaceable friend you are.

Namaste. I bow to you,

Kate

Many thanks for those who contributed to the film:

Sonya Cotton for her song Hilltop Hymn.
Missy Lambert for her poem. Please read Missy’s beautiful poem about Breezer.
Alisha Stamper for her photographs.
Carolee Beckham for her photographs.

A memorial service for Briana will be held Wednesday in Salt Lake. The service is scheduled for 7 p.m. at 951 E. 100 South, our old chapel.

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By kate, November 30, 2010 10:48 pm

In lieu of writing a 30 pg. legal paper for my Feminist Jurisprudence class, I am making a documentary film.

No, I do not know how to make a documentary film. But, I am learning. And, I now am now amazed and floored by every documentary I have ever seen, because I understand what an extreme amount of work went into the projects.

For my project I am making a mini-documentary where I interview four women I know about reproductive issues and how they have affected their lives. I am interviewing:

• Donna: My mother who gave up a baby for adoption at age 15 in 1972.
• Anne: My sister who was surrendered to another family and later found my mother after receiving her original birth certificate when she turned 18. She is now a single mother.
• Ashley: My best friend who is currently single and pregnant and has decided against abortion. She is torn between keeping the baby and surrendering her baby.
• Briana: Another dear friend who is a direct entry (home birth) midwife by profession and is Ashley’s midwife.

The purpose of the film is to record women’s stories from their own mouths, and to help illustrate themes and to go about “exploring common experiences and patterns that emerge from shared telling of life events,” this way, “[w]hat were experienced as personal hurts individually suffered reveal themselves as a collective experience of oppression.” Leslie Bender, A Lawyer’s Primer on Feminist Theory and Tort. 1988.

I hope I can adequately edit the film to do justice to these amazing narratives.

This clip is a bit of the unedited (unprocessed sound, without music etc.) footage. Even in its unadulterated form, it is beautiful.

If any blogsters out there are interested in helping with the project & have access to an HD capable camera in Utah, we are in desperate need of more b roll footage of Ashley & Briana for the film. So, let me know if you know of anyone who would be up to the challenge! Who wouldn’t want to follow these amazing women around with a camera?!??

Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom from Neil Ransom on Vimeo.