We want the general public to have a new, viscerally powerful experience of the Midwives Model of Care and to see Ina May’s work as relevant to birth in ANY setting — home, birth center or hospital. We want to help preserve some of the incredible skills that great midwives have worked hard to learn, and we want to document an important part of women’s history. Also, we hope that people will come away thinking about how much women can accomplish when we work together.
Co-Directors Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore, Birth Story
Sara Lamm, Director/Producer
Sara Lamm is a Los Angeles-based writer, director, and performer whose documentary film, DR. BRONNER’S MAGIC SOAPBOX was released theatrically in 2007 and had its television premiere on The Sundance Channel. Her work has also appeared at MASS-MOCA, The American Visionary Art Museum, on National Public Radio, and in performance venues throughout New York City. In 2010, she was one of 25 emerging artists recognized by AOL’s 25 for 25 grant. For five years she produced and performed in Dog & Pony, a live NYC variety show featuring sketch comedy and multi-media performance.
Mary Wigmore, Director/Producer
Mary Wigmore wrote and directed the short film DEALBREAKER that premiered at the 2006 Sundance film festival. She also directed the documentary ASHTANGA NY which premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival in 2003 sold to the Discovery Channel and Lime TV and is distributed by First Run Films. Mary directed Coldplay’s video, THE HARDEST PART, and has made short films for Google, MSN, Goop, Ogilvy and Mather, New Visions Foundation, and Amnesty International. Prior to graduating from the Columbia University Graduate Film Program in 2005, she worked in the art department on THE ICE STORM, and DEAD MAN WALKING, and did design research for Francis Ford Coppola’s MEGALOPOLIS.
Kate Roughan / Producer
Kate Roughan worked at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival producing off screen content for John Nein, Senior Programmer. Previously she served as event producer/film advisor for the non-profit arts organization Film Independent and has produced events for Kodak, The LA Times, PGAmerica, Canon, and The Los Angeles Film Festival. She associate produced Silver Docs Jury Winner, YOU’RE GONNA MISS ME along with Miranda July’s One Woman Show.
Zachary Mortensen / Producer
Zach Mortensen is the founder of Ghost Robot, a production and management company in New York City. Recent productions include Joey Garfield’s narrative/doc hybrid film A LOVE LETTER FOR YOU featuring infamous graffiti artist Stephen “ESPO” Powers. His feature production of Benjamin Dickinson’s FIRST WINTER premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film festival in the dramatic competition. Past productions include AGAINST THE CURRENT staring Joseph Fiennes, Michelle Trachtenberg and Mary Tyler Moore, the Gotham Award-winning feature film CHOKING MAN by director Steve Barron, as well as DR. BRONNER’S MAGIC SOAPBOX, BREATH CONTROL: THE HISTORY OF THE HUMAN BEAT BOX, and HELL HOUSE(2001). Mortensen’s feature ROAD by director Leslie McCleave premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival 2005
Kate Amend / Editor
In December 2005, Kate Amend received the International Documentary Association’s inaugural award for Outstanding Achievement in Editing for her work, which includes two Academy Award-winning documentary features: INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS and THE LONG WAY HOME. Her recent collaboration with Michele Ohayon, STEAL A PENCIL FOR ME (2007) screened at the United Nations, South by Southwest, Berlin and Kagali Film Festivals. MAN FROM PLAINS, also released in 2007 and directed by Jonathan Demme, was a triple- award winner at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. Amend has been an advisor at the Sundance Institute Documentary Edit and Story Lab for the last five years and a juror at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival International Documentary Competition. She is on the faculty of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and of the Board of Directors of the American Cinema Editors.