By: Malasha Parker
Birth is for P*ssies is a beautifully comedic short film reminding the lesson of you’ll never know until you try. With it immediately jumping into the plot, this picture shows so much in just the short thirteen minutes in length. It’s just enough to show how strong women are, in more ways than one, even when faced with things that can be scary.
Maya (Hannah Healy) is a newly licensed doula that has just watched a birthing video. Just then she gets a call from her fellow doula, Sati (Sohina Sidhu). Maya is so new to the job that she is afraid of working on her own. Maya freaks out when Sati phones to let her know she won’t be able to get to a soon to be mother, Celeste (Evelyn Howe), and needs back up. Maya immediately tells Sati she isn’t ready and tries to get out of it; however, Sati doesn’t take no for an answer. Therefore, Maya gathers her supplies and goes to meet Celeste. Celeste is not pleased to see Maya, but lets her help in order to ease the pain of her contractions. When Maya tries to use a machine to help the back pain, Celeste yells and tells Maya to get out. She listens and sits in the living room with Celeste’s father (Peter Jay Fernandez). After a while, Maya begins to scream in more pain and she invites Maya back in the room to help her. May eventually learns that the machine didn’t really hurt Celeste, but she was just frustrated. That eases Maya’s worries about doing something wrong on her first run as a doula. The two women share a beautiful moment before Celeste’s water breaks and they have to get her to the hospital. When they make it outside, Sati is there to take over. Maya is exhausted, but when she wakes in the morning, she gets another call for a client in need of their doula. She runs to meet them at their home.
Screenwriter, director and star Hannah Shealy gives a great performance as a woman unsure if she made the right decision to leave their job and become a doula. She never shows complete confidence and approaches the tasks of the job with a little more humor than may be warranted. But Shealy and Evelyn Howe make for great scene partners. It is beautiful to see the shifts in Maya and Celeste’s characters as they become familiar with each other and more understanding of each other’s situation. A notable moment in the film played so graciously by Peter Jay Fernandez as Celeste’s father is in the silent moments he shares with Maya. They don’t speak to each other, but they understand how big a moment this is for everyone involved.
Shealy’s directing shines in her directorial debut. Her ability to show the interactions between two women both afraid of the unknown makes for an interesting story. Shealy wrote, directed, and starred in this short film and it’s a powerful and bold way to showcase many different facets. The comedy mixed with serious dialogue and conversations is effortlessly done.
Healy provides an ideal directorial debut short film that manages to bring out an array of emotions from the viewer in just a small amount of time. It’s enjoyable with both serious matters and everyday life occurrences. She is able to show that there are small lessons to be learned in every life even. Because there isn’t just one way for a woman to give birth, Birth is for P*ssies and not just in the literal sense of the phrase!