Maybe it’s all the hoopla around Facebook’s puckered attitude about breastfeeding moms, maybe it’s my interest in taking lactation training so I can help new moms nurse successfully… who knows, but I was moved to watch Breasts: A Documentary.
I can’t recommend this hour-long film enough. It should be required watching for all women and girls. I think maybe for men too, although not for the reasons they’d think.
The film is the work of Meema Spadola, an award-winning film maker and an all-female camera crew.
Although it was released in 1996, the film remains wildly relevant.
Spadola talked to 22 women – many of whom appear topless in the film – about their relationship with their breasts. There are so many layers to the film: Mother/daughter relationships and inter-generational body attitudes, the role breasts play in sexual relationships, breast feeding, breast augmentation experiences, and of course, breast cancer. The subject’s film include a voluptuous transsexual, a stripper with implants, an 11-year-old on the cusp of puberty, a 420-pound comedienne, and an 84-year-old grandmother.
Check it out if you get a chance. It’s available from Netflix and you can buy it on Amazon. It would make a fantastic Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day gift for the special woman in your life.
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