I learned about a new documentary called Formula Fed America on Twitter last night. There were lots of retweets of the link flying around, but I believe the first person to post the link was Anne from Dou-La-La.
Of course my first reaction to watching the trailer was, “Yes! Finally someone has made a movie about the dangers of not breastfeeding!” I am hoping the movie is going to be very accessible and informative without being so preachy as to be a turn-off to the average viewer. I am hoping it will be the breastfeeding version of Ricki Lake’s “The Business of Being Born” and will make a huge splash and be covered in the media.
I am tempering my excitement a bit for now. The website has sparse information on the movie so I have no idea when it will be in theaters or if it’s going to be straight-to-DVD or only available in huge markets. In addition to that, the trailer makes me a bit nervous.
Notice that it features three moms talking about their breastfeeding experiences and three doctors talking about the importance of breastfeeding. All of them are white. I’m concerned that the entire movie is going to lack diversity and breastfeeding will continue to be seen as something that only white women do when we know that’s not true. I hope that they don’t show lots of women of color formula feeding. I hope that the racial and cultural barriers to breastfeeding will be discussed. I hope that women of color won’t be completely absent from this conversation because our babies have the worst health outcomes in the United States and we’re dying of breast cancer and diabetes and obesity and heart disease at higher rates, too.
I hope this movie comes to my area soon. I will definitely be front and center to see it, but I’ll probably be holding my breath a little the whole time.
*Update
I emailed briefly with Leslie Ott, one of the makers of the film. She told me that they are still conducting interviews and hope to wrap the film in February. The film is still unedited and anything related to promotion is not yet set in stone. I have sent her some follow-up questions that I hope she'll have the time to answer.
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Monday, November 16, 2009
Formula Fed America
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8 comments:
Interesting! Thanks for pointing this out.
Cool! I hope it is widely available in theaters and I hope lots of pregnant and trying-to-conceive couples go to see it. Lactivists will probably go, but that will be preaching to the choir.
You should send them a comment with your concerns!
Anonymous,
I actually did email, if I hear anything I will update this post.
You are 100%, absolutely right about this. I, too, really hope race and class barriers are addressed. It's a huge, huge issue, not to be taken lightly or ignored.
The site IS pretty short on actual information, eh? I emailed them myself, though it was about finding out about release dates & how to host a screening and such. I'll pass any info along once I get it.
(And thanks for the props! Hee!)
Hi Elita, Jaime from @MilkStars emailed me to say that the movie producers emailed her and the movie is supposed to be completed filming next April. So it sounds like their is lots of time to get input to them and it sounds like they respond to emails that they get through their website. I would suggest that you send them a link to this blog post or email them with your concerns - it might just be perfect timing to get them heard! And who knows, maybe you'll end up being part of the movie!
That's wonderful that you spoke with Leslie Ott about your concerns. I noticed the lack of WOC in the trailer too and do hope they can get some AA women in there. Maybe you!
I'm so glad that you e-mailed them and I hope they take your input to heart and turn this into a message that will speak to a wide spectrum of women and families.
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