The New Yorker Movies:

The letter in the title of Charles Belmont and Marielle Issartel’s 1973 documentary, “Stories of A,” stands for avortement, the French word for abortion, which was then illegal in France. The film—which was then also banned in France—is an exploration of activism on behalf of the procedure’s legalization. Clandestine groups of medical volunteers performed abortions nonetheless, and some worked with the filmmakers to publicize their activities—as in a scene of a woman receiving an abortion in an apartment. Belmont and Issartel interview women who were planning to terminate pregnancies or were unable to do so, and film contentious meetings in which activists debate strategies. Above all, the filmmakers put abortion into the wider context of social and economic change—of women’s control over not just their bodies but their lives.—Richard Brody (Streaming on OVID.tv.)

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