Hillary Clinton encouraged the audience at a film festival in Telluride, Colorado, to “go back to a time when the government doesn't determine what the choices would be for your family, which is just The Handmaid's Tale.”
Clinton was in Telluride on Saturday for the premiere of Zurawski vs. Texasa documentary she produced about a group of women who sued the state of Texas in 2023 after being denied abortions when their health was at risk. The film, directed by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault and seeking distribution, screened to a sold-out and often tearful audience at the festival’s 650-seat Palm Theater.
Zurawski vs. Texas It is one of the many films on current political issues present at the festival, including one by Ali Abbasi The Apprenticein which Sebastian Stan plays a young Donald Trump (Briarcliff Entertainment); Matt Tyrnauer Carville: Winning is everything, stupid! on Democratic strategist James Carville, who was acquired by CNN Films while he was in Telluride; and Errol Morris Separateon the Trump administration's family separation policy at the U.S. border, which is looking for a buyer.
“I don't think we can underestimate how important this film is in breaking the eye rolls, the denial, the contempt, the cruelty that has affected the lives of so many women in our country today,” Clinton said at the Zurawski vs. Texas Post-screening Q&A, moderated by this reporter. Three of the Texas plaintiffs whose stories appear in the film—Amanda Zurawski, Samantha Casiano, and Austin Dennard—appeared at the premiere with the filmmakers, as did Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Chelsea Clinton.
The Clintons supported Zurawski vs. Texas through HiddenLight, the production company they co-founded with Sam Branson. HiddenLight won an Emmy last year for In his handsa documentary about a female mayor in Afghanistan. The company is also backing a film about the efforts of George and Amal Clooney’s foundation to investigate Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
“We’ve brought all of our ideas and hopes and frustrations and anger together into HiddenLight to try to help people on the platform tell stories that we think urgently need to be told and yet are being left in the shadows because the subject matter is uncomfortable for people,” Chelsea said during the Q&A. “We think we’re in a moment where we actually need to be uncomfortable. And so when we heard that Maisie and Abbie were making this film, we were like, ‘What can we do? How can we help?’” Other producers on the film include Jennifer Lawrence’s Excellent Cadaver, Story Force Entertainment and Bumble Inc.
The Texas abortion ban challenged by the Zurawski case was triggered by the 2022 Supreme Court ruling Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health that overturned Roe vs. Wade. Asked if she was surprised by Dobbs' decision, the former secretary of state said: “No, I was not. I had watched with great concern the continued and relentless attack on women's reproductive health, and in particular on Roe vs. Wade for years, and it has often been said that if we are not careful, there will be a Supreme Court that is literally designed to reverse Roe vs. Wade…It was terribly distressing and disappointing, but not surprising.”
The conversation touched on a variety of topics, including movies, healthcare, and politics in the post-Roe era, and featured plaintiffs sharing some of the most personal moments of their lives, as they unfolded in a Texas courtroom.
“At first I wanted to remain anonymous, and then I gave birth to my daughter and I saw her eyes bleeding,” Casiano said, explaining her decision to allow filmmakers’ cameras to witness the funeral of her baby, Halo, who survived only four hours. Casiano had learned during a 20-week ultrasound that her baby was anencephalic and would not survive. Because she didn’t have the resources to travel out of Texas to get an abortion, she continued with the pregnancy. “From that moment on, I knew I couldn’t go on without letting others know that this is the reality and this is what’s happening to women right now.”
Duane, the lawyer on the case, emerges as a key character in the film, as he prepares for court and cares for his young children. “Part of this cause was to tell these stories to the widest possible audience,” Duane said, explaining why he was participating in the documentary. “We wanted people to stop pretending like [these women] did not exist.”
Ten states, including Colorado, will have abortion measures on the ballot in November. Clinton said she hoped voters would show “they are not in favor of what we saw in this movie.”