''Reversing Roe'' is a 2018 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

directed by

Ricki Stern ''Ricki Stern'' is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, most known for her documentarian work, and author. She works alongside Anne Sundberg. She is most known for ''The Trials of Darryl Hunt'' (2006), '' The Devil Came on Horsebac ...

and Anne Sundberg. Through interviews, the film analyzes the abortion laws in the United States and the effects of the 1973 ''

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States conferred the right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many federal and st ...

'' case. The film is internationally distributed by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

, where it was released on September 13, 2018.

Synopsis

Documentarists Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg interview several politicians, experts, and activists about the state of the abortion politics in the United States and about the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision ''

''.

Cast

Donna Howard Donna Smelser Howard (born October 25, 1951) is a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, representing the 48th District since her election in 2006. She currently serves as vice chair of the House Administration Committee and a ...

as herself * John Seago as himself * Brigitte Amiri as herself * Troy Newman as himself * Colleen McNicholas as herself * Linda Greenhouse as herself * Tom Davis as himself

Release

Reception

''Reversing Roe'' was worldwide released on September 13, 2018, on Netflix. Upon its release, the film received universal acclaim by the critics. On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''Reversing Roe'' has an approval rating of based on reviews.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

, assigned a score of 70 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Robert Abele of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' wrote: "As contentiousness turned into real-world consequences, ''Reversing Roe'' reminds us that the more women get involved regarding their rights, the more likely we're to see a fair, principled fight". Ben Kenigsberg of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' stated that the film ... "provides a clear and accessible overview of more than 50 years of the social and legal history of the issue in the United States". Brian Lowry, writing for

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

, was more critical towards the film, stating: "While the documentary sheds welcome light on Roe's history -- on the road that brought us to this crucial juncture -- the filmmakers, perhaps inevitably, bypassed some key stops and turns along the way." ''Reversing Roe'' was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary at the 40th

News and Documentary Emmy Award The News & Documentary Emmy Awards, or News & Documentary Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Scien ...

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, Film, Law, United States 2018 documentary films 2018 films American documentary films Films directed by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg Netflix original documentary films Documentary films about abortion 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language documentary films