The Janes

Originally premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in the U. S. Documentary Competition section.

"The Janes" is directed by Emma Pildes and Tia Lessin as the story is about during the pre-Roe v. Wade era, female activists calling themselves 'Jane' build an underground network for women with unwanted pregnancies and provide low-cost and free illegal abortions to an estimated 11,000 women. Throughout the documentary, there are live interviews from former participants involved with this event and archive footage throughout to express the themes. For what the movie goes for, there is a lot to learn about The Janes and the issues of abortion during the old days.

The presentation is really good and the music helps to build up the narration and subjects throughout. Many of the interviews were very well informative and interesting to listen too. Some interviews are funny, some were brutal to listen and some were a little shocking since there are some surprises you may not knew about this event. Pildes and Lessin were able to help convey and portray the events through creative lens and format to help bring the subject to light.

It's definitely not a perfect movie as there are some problems with the sound design. Sometimes you could hear sounding issues with the audio at small certain moments and in the second act, the pacing did drag a little on some subjects that could use some work. But overall, it was a very interesting documentary that came out just the right time when the Roe v. Wade is officially overturned.

Rating: B.