Amá (2018)
Documentary Case Study
Amá (2018)
A feature length documentary following one woman’s fight for the reproductive rights of a nation.
Directed by Lorna Tucker, 73 mins
Amá is a feature length documentary which tells an important and untold story: the abuses committed against Native American women by the United States Government during the 1960’s and 70’s: removed from their families and sent to boarding schools, forced relocation away from their traditional lands and involuntary sterilization.
The result of nine years painstaking and sensitive work by filmmaker Lorna Tucker, the film features the testimony of many Native Americans, including three remarkable women who tell their stories – Jean Whitehorse, Yvonne Swan and Charon Aseytoyer – as well as a revealing and rare interview with Dr. Reimart Ravenholt whose population control ideas were the framework for some of the government policies directed at Native American women.
“While ‘Amá’ is undeniably beautiful, in the way it’s shot and told, and hauntingly actual, it is not just the power of the film as a work of art that makes it so perfect. It’s how perfectly it fits into the age of #MeToo and the newfound feminism of the Millennials.“
— E. NINA ROTHE
PRESS SPOTLIGHTS
Impact Highlight
360 MEDIA joined the Amá team in 2019, partnering with the American Indian Movement (AIM-West) to produce the film’s global premiere screening and advocacy campaign at the 18th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York, NY.
Jean Whitehorse, Dine’, testified before the forum as a survivor of forced sterilization, demanding a formal apology from the U.S. Government for decades of federally funded forced sterilization programs, calling for accountability and justice for one of the most grotesque abuses of power in modern American history. The film’s advocacy campaign led to the United Nation’s first-ever global study on the forced sterilization of Indigenous women (Resolution 50/51).
As part of the film’s continued community education efforts, under the auspices of the Native American Community Board, Amá is being shown to Native American communities in states across America, where it has received widespread appreciation.
Amá at The United Nations
As part of the film’s continued community education efforts, under the auspices of the Native American Community Board, Amá is being shown to Native American communities in states across America, where it has received widespread appreciation.