VESSEL

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    Vessel begins with a young doctor who lived by the sea, and an unlikely idea.  Rebecca Gomperts, horrified by the realities created by anti-abortion law around the world, felt compelled to challenge this.  Her method: to provide abortions on a ship in offshore waters.

    Her project, Women on Waves, begins as flawed spectacle, a media frenzy, faced with governmental, religious, and military blockades.  But with each setback comes a more refined mission, until Rebecca has the revelation that she can use new technologies to bypass law – and train women to give themselves safe abortions using WHO-sanctioned protocols with pills.

    We witness the creation of an underground network of emboldened, informed activists, working at the cutting edge of global reproductive rights, who trust women to handle abortion themselves. Vessel is Rebecca’s story: one of a woman who heard and answered a calling, and transformed a wildly improbable idea into a global movement.

    Vessel premiered at SXSW Film Festival in 2014, winning the Audience Award for Documentary in Competition and a Special Jury Award for Political Courage. The film was released theatrically in New York, and went on to screen at over 350+ festivals and community screenings worldwide. Additional awards include the inaugural Peter Wintonick Award from Sheffield DocFest, the Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award, a Moving Mountains Honorable Mention from Mountainfilm in Telluride, the Calgary Underground Audience Choice Honorable Mention, and the SIMA Lens to Action Jury Award.  Vessel was distributed worldwide by Netflix and can now be viewed across international video-on-demand platforms.

    WATCH THE FILM

    These platforms are for home use only. If you are interested in hosting a community screening or making an educational purchase, please learn more HERE or contact Kino Lober at edu@kinolorber.com.

    The DVD is available for purchase HERE

    THE FILMMAKERS

    A Sovereignty Productions presentation, in association with Fork Films, Impact Partners, and Chicken and Egg Pictures.

    Vessel was made possible with generous support from HIVOS, Mary Wohlford Foundation, Hope Foundation, NYSCA, Fledgling Fund, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Mama Cash, Harnisch Foundation, Ipas, Grant Me the Wisdom Foundation, Diane and Adam Max, Lambrecht Family Foundation, Rosenthal Family Foundation, Dobkin Family Foundation, Compton Foundation, Neda Nobari Foundation, over 150 individual donors, an army of fabulous volunteers, and the fiscal sponsorship of Women Make Movies.

    ...Thank you!

    THE TEAMTHE EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS

    Reviews

    ABOUT WOMEN ON WAVES

    Women on Waves was founded in 2000 with the aim to prevent unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions by providing sexual health services, including early medical abortions (abortion with pills), on board a Dutch ship, outside the territorial waters of countries where abortion is illegal.

    In the last 10 years Women on Waves has generated enormous public interest, and much controversy, with ship campaigns in Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Morocco.  The ship campaigns are conducted by invitation and in collaboration with local partner organizations, and are designed to add momentum to activist efforts already on the ground working to liberalize law.

    Although legalization of abortion is important, medical abortion now gives women the possibility to take their lives into their own hands, regardless of the legality of abortion or the willingness of doctors. Ensuring that WHO-researched information about medical abortion is easily available to women can save women’s lives. Therefore, Women on Waves and their sister organization Women on Web now focus on helping women access information and medical abortion via the internet, grassroots efforts on the ground, and by supporting the creation of safe abortion telephone hotlines in collaboration with partner organizations across South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

    For more information, or if you need help, please visit www.womenonwaves.org

     

    Upcoming screenings

    Date Venue
    Leipzig, GERMANY University of Leipzig

    HOST A SCREENING

    YOU CAN BRING VESSEL TO YOUR CAMPUS, COMPANY, NONPROFIT OR COMMUNITY

    Interested in hosting a screening of Vessel? Nonprofits, student groups, activists and educators have hosted hundreds of screenings of Vessel around the world, using the screenings as events to raise awareness of and resources for their own work in reproductive rights and justice.

    To host a screening or for any questions about hosting and acquiring public performance rights, please write to: vesselthefilm@gmail.com

    Over 300 screenings have been booked worldwide!  Check to see if there is an upcoming screening in your community HERE.


    Get On Board

    CONTACT US


    GENERAL INQUIRIES:
    vesselthefilm@gmail.com

    NORTH AMERICAN AND WORLD SALES:
    Alan D'Escragnolle | Filmhub | alan@filmhub.com

    EDUCATIONAL DVD SALES:
    US/Canada: edu@kinolorber.com | International: vesselthefilm@gmail.com

    COMMUNITY SCREENINGS, FILMMAKER APPEARANCES & PUBLICITY:
    Diana Whitten | Vessel | vesselthefilm@gmail.com


    Photos by Diana Whitten and Cedric Zoenen
    Poster art by Empty the Sunrise