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A Girl Like Her
US, 2012, 48 minutes, Color, DVD, English
Order No. W131099
A GIRL LIKE HER reveals the hidden history of over a million young women who became pregnant in the 1950s and 60s when “nice girls” didn’t get pregnant. It was a time when young women were routinely expelled from high schools and colleges and banished to maternity homes or distant relatives where they could give birth, surrender their babies for adoption, and start over with a clean slate. They were told to keep their secret and forget it ever happened. But did they?
The film combines footage from educational films and newsreels–that both reflected and shaped the public's understanding of single pregnancy during that time–with the voices of these mothers as they speak today, about the long-term impact of surrender and silence on their lives.
AWARDS, FESTIVALS, & SCREENINGS
- International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
- Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, US Premiere
- Silverdocs Documentary Festival
- Mill Valley Film Festival
- Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
- Milwaukee Film Festival
- Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival
- Montreal World Film Festival
- WATCH DOCS Human Rights Film Festival
- New Orleans Film Festival
- San Francisco Documentary Film Festival
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QUOTES
“A Girl Like Her Ann Fessler’s haunting group portrait of women who surrendered their children for adoption in the 1950s and ’60s juxtaposes their voices with stock archival images from an era when wrenching human drama was buried beneath airbrushed images of family and sexuality.”
The Washington Post, “Ten movies not to miss at Silverdocs”
“Fessler offers a sociologically rich and important deconstruction of a devastating double social standard that was in effect in those days. In revealing the painful legacy that permanently impacted so many birthmothers, Fessler has finally and respectfully given them a voice and created a powerful collective portrait that will benefit everyone touched by adoption.”
Geneva Anderson
Art Hound
“Heart-wrenching,..precise, daunting, and also allusive, this story recalls those bad old days when ignorance, silence, and repression were the preferred social strategies.”
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters
“A Girl Like Her packs an emotional wallop greater than most other films released this year, documentary or fiction.”
Dan Schindel
Otste
Of all the films screened by the Indy, Ann Fessler’s A Girl Like Her, stands out as one of the most thought-provoking. This one will hit you in your gut and keep you up at night.”
Bret Wright
Colorado Springs Independent
“Quietly devastating.”
Tricia Olszewski
Washington City Paper
“A Girl Like Her”, a new film by Ann Fessler, visually expresses the trappings of an era unthinkable by the standards of today … with a punishment that far surpassed the crime. Scenes in the movie unleashed all too familiar memories. That evening I grieved for all the young mothers and yet felt liberated to see that our ordeal had been real, not imagined.”
Donnie Davis
Decree, Journal of the American Adoption Congress
“Women recall … in riveting detail … their parents’ reactions, life in the unwed mothers home and the lifelong emptiness they have felt as a result of losing a child. Think times have changed? Two words: Rick. Santorum.”
Lisa Sorg
Independent Weekly
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A Girl Like Her is included in the following Special Collections.
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