EXCLUSIVE: Zurawski v Texas, the urgent documentary about women who sued Texas after the state’s strict anti-abortion laws almost cost them their lives, will reach theaters before the presidential election.
Deadline can report the film directed by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, and executive produced by a team including Jennifer Lawrence, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, will launch in New York, Los Angeles and cities across Texas beginning October 25.
Austin, Texas resident Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff in the case, became pregnant in 2022 — the same year the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, prompting Texas and other states to impose near total abortion bans. At 18 weeks into her pregnancy, Zurawski suffered serious complications that doctors knew would be fatal to her unborn daughter. Despite the potential threat to Zurawski’s life, medical personnel told her they couldn’t intervene to end the pregnancy because Texas law might expose them to criminal prosecution. As a result, Zurawski developed sepsis, which nearly killed her.
“Devastated and enraged, Amanda and her husband, Josh, turned their tragedy into a mission to make sure no one else endures the same fate,” notes a release about the documentary. The film, which premiered at Telluride, also follows the case of another Texas woman, Samantha Casiano, who “learned at a 20-week ultrasound that her baby had no chance of survival. With no resources to travel out of state, she was forced to carry the pregnancy to term and bear the agony of giving birth and watching her baby suffer and die within hours of being born.”
Plaintiff Samantha Cassiano (center) and attorney Molly Duane. Next to Cassiano is her husband. HiddenLight Productions
Another of the key participants in the film, Dr. Austin Dennard, a Texas OB-GYN, “knew her pregnancy had a fatal condition, but the fear of losing her license and facing 99 years in prison meant she couldn’t receive care in her own state. Forced to leave Texas for her own abortion, she returned to her job knowing she’d have to turn away patients facing the same heartbreaking situation she had just endured.”
Zurawski v Texas also closely follows Molly Duane of the Center for Reproductive Rights, the attorney representing the 20 women who joined the suit. The legal battle eventually wound up before the Texas Supreme Court.
HiddenLight Productions
The documentary will open Friday, October 25 in New York at Village East by Angelika and in Los Angeles at Laemmle Monica Film Center. It is set to play in Dallas at Texas Theater on Oct. 27, 28, 29; Alamo Lakeline in Austin on Oct. 28; Alamo Stone Oak in San Antonio on Oct. 29, with more locations in Texas expected to be added in the coming days. Filmmakers Crow and Perrault and documentary participants will take part in Q&A sessions at select screenings in Los Angeles, New York, and Dallas. The theatrical run will qualify the film for Oscar consideration as Best Documentary Feature.
“We felt it was critical to not only theatrically release the film in traditional markets like New York and Los Angeles,” said director Maisie Crow, “but make it available during that window in locations across Texas to ensure Texans understand what these abortion bans mean in practice.”
As part of the film team’s impact rollout, free screenings are being held this month in states with abortion access initiatives on the ballot including Phoenix, Arizona; Miami; St. Louis, MO; Charlotte, NC, and Las Vegas.
Plaintiff Amanda Zurawksi and Executive Producer Hilary Clinton at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2024. Vivien Killilea/Getty Images
At the Telluride premiere, the filmmakers were joined by documentary participants Zurawski, Cassiano, and Dr. Dennard, as well as Secretary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton. At a Q&A afterwards, Secretary Clinton said, “I don’t think we can [over]estimate how important this film is in order to break through the eye-rolling, the denial, the dismissiveness, the cruelty that has affected so many women’s lives and women’s futures in our country today.”
She added, “Of course, we have lots of stories about abortion and reproductive health, but post Roe being reversed … this really is a film that breaks through the denial and breaks through the indifference. And it’s only because the women on this stage were willing to tell their stories.”
Next week, Zurawski v Texas continues its festival run, screening at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Arkansas (Oct. 17), Montclair Film Festival in New Jersey (October 19 and 27), AFI Fest in Los Angeles (Oct. 23), Chicago International Film Festival (Oct. 26, 27) and GlobeDocs in Boston (Oct. 27), as well as several other festivals throughout the month.
Zurawski v Texas won the Artemis Rising Foundation Award for Social Impact at the Hamptons International Film Festival and the Audience Favorite Award in the Active Cinema strand of the Mill Valley Film Festival. The film is produced by HiddenLight Productions – founded by Hillary Clinton, Sam Branson, and Chelsea Clinton — Story Force Entertainment, and Out of Nowhere. It is also produced in association with Excellent Cadaver – the production company founded by Jennifer Lawrence and Justine Ciarrocchi — and Bumble Inc.
Zurawski v Texas is directed By Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault and produced by Amy Flanagan, Siobhan Sinnerton, Blye Pagon Faust, Cori Shepherd, Maisie Crow, and Abbie Perrault. Executive Producers include Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Jennifer Lawrence, Justine Ciarrocchi, Bari Lurie, Johnny Webb, Linda Himelstein, Laurie Michaels, and Amy Metzler Ritter.
The film is edited By Austin Reedy; Maisie Crow is the director of photography Maisie Crow; original music is by Osei Essed.
HiddenLight’s productions include the Apple TV+ docuseries Gutsy, and feature docs In the Shadow of Beirut, and In Her Hands – the latter film released by Netflix.
Excellent Cadaver produced the upcoming documentary Bread & Roses, “a definitive account of Afghan women’s lives following the country’s fall to the Taliban,” directed by Afghani filmmaker Sahra Mani and produced by Jennifer Lawrence and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. It will be released in theaters in New York, Los Angeles and select additional cities on November 22, before a global premiere on Apple TV+.
Excellent Cadaver is set to produce an adaptation of Ariana Harwicz’s Die, My Love. Also on its slate is The Wives, a murder mystery starring Lawrence, and Why Don’t You Love Me?, an adaptation of Paul B. Rainey’s 2023 sci-fi comedy graphic novel. Excellent Cadaver’s first film, Causeway, starring Lawrence and co-starring Brian Tyree Henry, earned Henry a 2023 Academy Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category.
