Abby Epstein is a film director and producer most known for working in the field of the documentary. Her film ''The Business of Being Born'', which deals with the birth process in American hospitals, is one of her most widely known and acclaimed films.

Life and career

Abby Epstein started her career as a theatre director having her own production company, Roadworks Productions, which is based in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. Roadworks Productions was founded in 1992, and the company had seen much success in the mid 1990s. After directing a few productions in Chicago, Abby moved to New York to be an assistant director on the production of ''

Rent Rent may refer to: Economics *Renting, an agreement where a payment is made for the temporary use of a good, service or property *Economic rent, any payment in excess of the cost of production *Rent-seeking, attempting to increase one's share of e ...

''. She then worked on ''

The Vagina Monologues ''The Vagina Monologues'' is an episodic play written in 1996 by Eve Ensler which developed and premiered at HERE Arts Center, Off-Off-Broadway in New York and was followed by an Off-Broadway run in at Westside Theatre. The play explores c ...

'' with

Eve Ensler V, formerly Eve Ensler (; born May 25, 1953), is an American playwright, performer, feminist, and activist. V is best known for her play ''The Vagina Monologues''.

. Epstein directed her first documentary '' Until the Violence Stops'', a film about the impact of ''

'' on a global scale. Five years after releasing ''Until the Violence Stops,'' Abby Epstein released ''

The Business of Being Born ''The Business of Being Born'' is a 2008 documentary film that explores the contemporary experience of childbirth in the United States. Directed by Abby Epstein and produced by Ricki Lake, it compares various childbirth methods, including midwives ...

'' in 2008. She is currently working on her third film, ''Sweetening the Pill,'' a film that aims to address the side effects of taking the

birth control pill The combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), often referred to as the birth control pill or colloquially as "the pill", is a type of birth control that is designed to be taken orally by women. The pill contains two important hormones: progesti ...

. Much of Abby Epstein's film career deals with birth and sex. Her film ''Until the Violence Stops'' premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 and won an Emmy after its screening on Lifetime. ''The Business of Being Born'' debuted at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

in 2007 and released theatrically in 2008. In October 2018, Epstein released Weed the People, a documentary about infants with pediatric cancer, that she worked on for 6 years with

Ricki Lake Ricki Pamela Lake (born September 21, 1968) is an American television host and actress. She is known for her lead role as Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film ''Hairspray'', for which she received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for B ...

as an executive producer. The film studies the effects of a lack of cannabis legalization in the US, and follows the parents of sick children trying to get access. It makes the case for increasing the amount of research into medical marijuana and making it easier for patients who get relief from medical applications of cannabis.

Filmography

References

External links

* American cannabis activists Living people Film directors from Illinois Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-film-bio-stub