Vessel | |
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Directed by | Diana Whitten |
Written by | Diana Whitten |
Produced by |
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Starring | Rebecca Gomperts |
Cinematography | Diana Whitten |
Edited by | Simeon Hutner |
Music by | |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Filmbuff |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Box office | $800 thousand |
Vessel is a 2014 multi-national documentary film written and directed by Diana Whitten as her debut film, [1] focusing on the work of Women on Waves, a Dutch pro-choice organization founded by the Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts in 1999. [2] [3] [4] The film's world premiere took place at SXSW in Texas on March 9, 2014. The film has been distributed by Filmbuff since 2015. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
The film focuses on Dr. Rebecca Gomperts' work with her organization 'Women on Waves', as she sails a ship around the world and provides abortions at sea for women who have no legal alternative. Gomperts meets opposition, but when each is overcome, she refines her mission and eventually realizes she can use new technologies to bypass existing laws. She trains women to give themselves abortions using WHO-researched protocols with pills, and creates an underground network of empowered activists who trust women to handle abortion themselves.
The film features Rebecca Gomperts, Susan Davies, Veronica Vera, Kinga Jelinska, Cecilia Costa, Gunilla Kleiverda, Myra ter Meulen, Margreet Parlevliet, Juul Brockling, Lizet Kraal, Margie Moore, Ivette Mrova, Annemarie van den Heuvel, Ana Cristina Santos, Sara larrea, Ana Cristina Vera, Paula Castello Starkoff, Manuela Luna Creciente, and Nondo Ebuela Ejano, with voice-over by Kinga Jelinska and Inês Rodrigues.
The film took seven years to make. [10]
Vessel was given a mixed review by Indiewire critic Eric Kohn, who wrote that "the hot button topic [abortion] begs for a more dynamic treatment." [11]
At the 2014 South by Southwest Film Festival the film was nominated for the 'SXSW Grand Jury Award' and won both the 'Audience Award' and 'Special Jury Awards' for Documentary Feature. At the 2014 Sheffield International Documentary Festival, the film won the Peter Wintonick Award. [12] At the Nantucket Film Festival, the film won the Adrienne Shelly Excellence In Filmmaking Award. [13]
Women on Waves (WoW) is a Dutch nongovernmental organization (NGO) created in 1999 by Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts, in order to bring reproductive health services, particularly non-surgical abortion services and education, to women in countries with restrictive abortion laws. Other services offered by WoW include contraception, individual reproductive counseling, workshops, and education about unwanted pregnancy. Workshops are conducted for lawyers, doctors, artists, writers, public health care activists, as well as for women and men to learn about contraceptive practices and non-surgical, DIY abortion using RU-486. Services are provided on a commissioned ship that contains a specially constructed mobile clinic, the A-Portable. When WoW visits a country, women make appointments, and are taken on board the ship. The ship then sails out approximately 20 km, to international waters, where Dutch laws are in effect on board ships registered in the Netherlands. Once in international waters, the ship's medical personnel provide a range of reproductive health services that includes medical abortion.
Women on Web (WoW) is a Canadian non-profit organization that provides access to safe abortion services to protect women's health and lives. People who need access to safe abortion can do an online consultation on the Women on Web website and request abortion pills from their medical team. The Women on Web helpdesk provides information and support in 16 languages, including Arabic, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, and Turkish. The organization was founded by Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, a Dutch physician, in 2005.
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Rebecca Gomperts is a Dutch physician who is a well-known activist for women's rights and in particular abortion rights. She is the founder of Women on Waves and Women on Web, which provide reproductive health services for women in countries where these are not provided. In 2013 and 2014, she was included in the BBC's 100 Women. In 2018, she founded Aid Access, which operates in the United States. A trained abortion specialist and activist, she is generally considered the first abortion rights activist to cross international borders.
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