Disney's Onyx & ABC News Acquire AFTERSHOCK Documentary

Today, Onyx Collective and ABC News announced a joint acquisition of the award-winning documentary "Aftershock," following its debut as an official selection of the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The feature won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Change.

The documentary will stream as an original film from Onyx Collective on Hulu in the U.S., Star+ in Latin America, and Disney+ in all other territories. Eric Sloss from Cinetic Media closed the deal with Victoria Cook, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.

An alarmingly disproportionate number of Black women are failed every year by the U.S. maternal health system. Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Isaac were vibrant, excited mothers-to-be whose deaths due to childbirth complications were preventable. Now, their partners and families are determined to sound a rallying cry around this chilling yet largely ignored crisis.

Directors Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee follow Gibson's and Isaac's bereaved partners, Omari Maynard and Bruce McIntyre, as they fight for justice and build communities of support, bonding especially with other surviving Black fathers. Their tragic, individual experiences are punctuated with condemning historical context, showing that gynecology has a long-standing history of exploiting and neglecting Black women in America.

In the arresting words of mother-to-be Felicia Ellis, "A Black woman having a baby is like a Black man at a traffic stop with the police." She emphasizes that paying attention is paramount. "Aftershock" brings an unsettling reality to the forefront while uplifting the families, activists and birth workers who are striving to bring institutional change and legislative reform. These mothers will not be forgotten.

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