“Aftershock” Screening at the Journalism School
by Nishtha Shanti, 2023-24 duPont-Columbia Fellow
In celebration of Women’s History month, the duPont-Columbia Awards recently hosted a screening of the 2024 duPont-Award winning film Aftershock - a documentary that embeds in the fight against a Black maternal health crisis in the United States. The screening was followed by a conversation with the filmmakers - Tonya Lewis Lee, and Paula Eiselt, moderated by Professor Robe Imbriano of the Columbia Journalism School. Professor Imbriano is the Director of the J School’s Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights, which co-sponsored the event.
An emotionally gripping documentary, the film follows the lives of two Black fathers - Omari Maynard, and Bruce McIntyre - after the tragic deaths of their partners, Shamony Gibson who died 13 days following the birth of her son, and Amber Rose Isaac, who died during an emergency c-section.
“We wanted to highlight the people,” said co-director Tonya Lewis Lee, when asked about their approach in humanizing the issue. “We wanted the information to come from the community. And at the same time, we also wanted to make sure that we got in the statistics and the experts in a way that was organic to the storytelling.”
Aftershock illustrates the personal stories behind the alarming statistic that Black mothers giving birth are 3 to 4 times more likely to suffer maternal mortality compared to their white counterparts. In fact, the United States exhibits markedly elevated rates of all maternal deaths compared to other advanced nations. The film delves into several key factors fueling this crisis, such as systemic racism, escalating rates of cesarean sections, and the economic incentives of privatized hospitals that promote certain efficient yet potentially damaging practices.
The film was shot across a span of two years, with the backdrop of events like the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, which raised the emotional temperature during production.“I remember there were moments when I said to Paula, that like, I don't know if this conversation we're having is colored by what's happening here, but I'm feeling sensitive,” said Lewis Lee.“We're talking about a film about Black women dying from childbirth complications. And so I think we were all a little heightened to what was going on.”
In her acceptance speech for the duPont Awards Silver Baton earlier this year, Paula Eiselt made another connection to an escalating maternal health issue. “It's important to note that since the fall of Roe, the top ten states that had the highest rates of maternal mortality all have abortion bans right now. So we are in a full spectrum reproductive health crisis. And we need these stories.”
Aftershock is available for streaming on Hulu.