Pandoras Box: Lifting the Lid on Menstruation (Rebecca Snow, 2019): USA

Reviewed by Abby Farer-Haydon. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2020.

I must approach the review of this documentry as a woman first and a critic second. Probably every  woman who sees this movie will have flashbacks to her early years of menstruation. My experience was relatively painless compared  to the women in the film. This movie brilliantly offers up a sampling of the trauma and the challenges that young women still face as their bodies blossom into adulthood. I was surprised to see that girls still stay home from school when they are bleeding as well as face ignorant ridicule.

The producers and directors   presented several powerful women who have started organizations to help their sisters. The women come from a blend of third world countries as well as Great Britian and The United States. These women are pushing legislators to change laws about taxation of menstrual products. There are also groups of women who are working to get easy access to afordable menstrual products for women in prisons. I can say that I felt  pride inside me for the feeling of sisterhood this film brought out in me.These long over due changes  are making to our world a better, happier place for females.

As far as the production goes, I will first say that it was very slick. Percision editing. Actually I felt it was a bit too percision.  Toward the end of the movie I started to feel a bit overwhelmed. The many statistical written blurbs  were constantly on the screen. They disappeared as quickly as they came, making me feel that I had to be in a hurry if I was to read the information before the next one appeared. I felt that the people who made this film wanted the viewer to feel the urgency of this matter. It seemed to me that one of their goals was to motivate viewers to get off their theater chairs and go out and help this cause. They were successful in stirring  up the audience for I felt very invigorated as I left the showing.

I also felt a bit tired. The movie got your adrenalin going but I would have liked it if it was a bit shorter. They gave the viewers a lot of information in a short time. As a school teacher of many years I have learned that the attentions span is not too long and an overload of information can turn off the ability to assimilate it.  I would have also told each woman’s story in a longer version instead of chopping it up. It is hard for the mind to go back to something they saw 10 minutes ago and remember where the story left off. I feel the stories would have been more effectively presented if the segments had not been so disconnected

I did feel the movie is important for everyone to see.I am glad that someone has finally taken this topic out of a dark cave or Red Tent and brought women out into the sunshine of self love.


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