Abortion laws vary state to state, but most limit access and ease. Raised in the south, these policies were commonplace, but moving away, we realized these issues face women all over the country. We’re making a movie about and by women that shines a light on just how hard it is to get an abortion.

 

A woman’s access to abortion is (sadly) continually an urgent issue of our times, it always feels threatened, stigmatized and never secure. Waiting Period explores the time between a woman deciding to have an abortion and when the state allows her to do so. The United States government tries to dissuade her from that decision, both implicitly and explicitly using waiting periods, false information counseling, economic barriers and so much more.The laws surrounding abortion vary state to state. But they all make it harder for women to access safe and humane abortions.

In the spring of 2021, at least 25 states require a 24-hour (or more) waiting period between required counseling and the procedure of getting an abortion. When we learned about this waiting period that exists predominantly in southern states, we knew we wanted to film our movie in our hometown and shed light on this often overlooked part of the abortion process. Abortion laws continue to get more complicated, more harmful and we are sadly so far from where we need to be.  We believe that the more we know about what goes on in this stigmatized process, the more we can take action against these inhumane laws.

Our story is told through the eyes of a young woman, Lena, who is forced to spend her waiting period in a clinic run by a Counselor who plays mind games with her and her cohabitants. The women look to each other for comfort and strength inside these manipulative walls. 

 

 

We want to zero in on the mental toll that this particular time takes through a near future fictional world where heightened psychological challenges are weaponized against women trying to get an abortion.  Through heightening and making more surreal the mental toll that this takes on a woman already grappling with a hard decision, we hope to draw attention to how egregious we believe this policy to be, and how, obviously, women who have decided to get an abortion aren’t all coming from the same mental state or station in life.

Both Julias grew up in the South where these issues are more pronounced, but since living in New York have been surprised by the arbitrary laws all over the country that hinder womens, abilities to have safe and accessible abortions We are interested as actors and creators in meaty stories for women about womens’ issues outside of the context of men.

 

We hope to be able to submit this film to festivals across the country, sparking conversations about why these laws exist and more nuanced conversations around abortion access.

 

 

Both named Julia. Both actors. Both from Virginia. Now living in New York by way of Ohio.

Julia and Julia both grew up in Richmond, Virginia. They attended the same high school (but as the video states ... were not close) but going to the same college in Ohio changed that. They  have been working and creating together for numerous years and are excited to finally have found a project that means so much to the both of them. 

We also got incredibly lucky in finding a rockstar director who is just as passionate as us -- Taylor Lee Nagel. Taylor and Julia G worked on Taylor's award winning film LADY LIBERTY (Tribeca) a few years back and are thrilled to be working on another film together. 

We have so much in common and finally found something we both wanted to write a movie about. Read more about all of us as artists on the Bios page. 

 

 

 

 

One of our priorities in making this short film is hiring women because they are so radically underrepresented in the film industry

 

 

We want to pay them a fair rate that adequately values their time and talent. 

We also need to house, feed, and provide a safe working set in the times of covid. Your funds will be directly put into these categories. We will be paying close attention to the updated CDC guidelines -- we will be using our budget to directly finance our Covid safety efforts by purchasing sanitizing equipment, PPP, and properly housing our crew.