rePRO Film Festival To Honor Martha Plimpton With Inaugural 'ChangemakeHER' Award

rePRO by mama.film, a new five day virtual film festival running August 12-16 that is dedicated to exploring women's reproductive healthcare, awareness, advocacy and bodily integrity in America, has announced the recipient for its inaugural "ChangemakeHER" Award, as well as a number of speakers and moderators for its conversation series. The news was announced today by the festival's founders, Lela Meadow-Conner, Mallory Martin and Debby Samples.

The festival will present the inaugural ChangemakeHER Award to actress and activist Martha Plimpton, for her work in fighting for women's reproductive rights as the president/co-founder for 'A Is For', a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing reproductive rights and ending the stigma against abortion care. Plimpton will be the first recipient of this award, which aims to recognize an exceptional individual who has provided significant contribution towards the fight for women's reproductive healthcare, including education, awareness and activism.

Plimpton is an award-winning accomplished film, television and broadway actress, and has appeared in over forty films including the upcoming independent film MASS opposite Ann Dowd, and on stage for over forty years. Plimpton, who has been politically active since she was a teenager, has marched for women's reproductive freedom since the 80s, and will continue to fight for every human being's right to physical autonomy until it is a global standard in America. Her advocacy work includes years of lobbying congress on behalf of Planned Parenthood and at the Center For Reproductive Rights, as well as speaking at campuses and rallies across the country.

"I'm beyond excited by the work being showcased in this inaugural festival of films focusing on the vast subject of our reproductive lives. These stories are vital to broadening our cultural vocabulary, and to be honored in this way means more than I can say. We still have so much work to do, and it's high time that these stories are recognized and appreciated, encouraging those who have stories yet to be told," says Plimpton in a statement.

Confirmed conversation participants for the festival's call-to-action panels will include experts on respective topics, featured filmmakers and moderators who are politically active within women's reproductive rights activism - highlights include keynote speaker Dr. Kathleen Tarr, actress/activist Amber Tamblyn, CNN journalist Chloe Melas, President and CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association Barbara Collura, Trust Women's Founder and Chief Executive Officer Julie A. Burkhart, and more. The conversations, designed to spotlight the creators who dare to tell stories about women's reproductive rights and showcase courageous advocates, will be available online for free globally.

The previously announced lineup of films, which will be open to anyone in the US, includes documentaries and narratives dealing with women's rights, endometriosis, illegal sterilization, access to abortion, and reproductive justice for women of color, among other topics. The features playing the festival will include its opening night film BELLY OF THE BEAST by director Erika Cohn, which examines illegal sterilization of prisoners and other crimes within the US women's prison system, Shannon Cohn's eye-opening endometriosis documentary ENDO WHAT?, Jo Ardinger's pregency policing movement film PERSONHOOD, Maria Finitzo's female sexual desire documentary THE DILEMMA OF DESIRE, and Jan Haaken's OUR BODIES OUR DOCTORS, which chronicles the lives of several abortion providers, and the difficulties they face in their daily lives.

Tickets for the festival are on sale as of today (July 22nd) online at repromamafilm.org, where the full list of speakers & topics can be found. Tickets are all pay-what-you-can ($5, $10 or $15) with a limited number of complimentary vouchers available upon request to ensure access for all.