“No Más Bebés,” the latest documentary film by professor Renee Tajima-Peña of the UCLA Asian American Studies Department, is being shown at the Ambulante Documentary Film Festival and other screenings across Southern California.
The Academy Award-nominated filmmaker tells the story of immigrant mothers who sued county doctors, the state and the U.S. government after the women were prodded into sterilizations while giving birth at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center during the 1960s and 70s. Led by an intrepid, 26-year-old Chicana lawyer and armed with hospital records secretly gathered by a whistle-blowing young doctor, the mothers faced public exposure and stood up to powerful institutions in the name of justice. The documentary, which debuted last June, will be shown Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the L.A. Plaza de Cultura y Artes, 501 N. Main St, Los Angeles.
On Oct. 3, she will appear as a special guest at a panel discussion, "True Tales from County Hospital: Race, Class, and Trauma at LAC+USC," at the Ray Stark Family Theatre, School of Cinematic Arts, USC. Admission is free, but reservations are requested. Her film will be shown beginning at 4 p.m.
Tajima-Peña holds the Alumni and Friends of Japanese American Ancestry Endowed Chair and directs the Center for EthnoCommunications at UCLA, housed in the Asian American Studies Center.
Her film works include "Calavera Highway," "The Mexico Story" of the "New Americans" series; "Labor Women"; "Skate Manzanar"; the Sundance award-winning "My America ... or Honk if You Love Buddha"; "The Last Beat Movie"; "The Best Hotel on Skid Row"; and "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" Her films have premiered at Sundance, Cannes, San Francisco, New Directors/New Films, Toronto, the Whitney Biennial and festivals around the world. Among her honors are a USA Broad Fellowship, Peabody Award, Dupont-Columbia Award in the Arts, IDA Achievement Award and a Guggenheim fellowship.
