Overview:
Haitian American midwife and filmmaker Stéphanie Etienne discusses her debut documentary “Hearken to Me,” the urgency of Black maternal well being, and the significance of platforms like AfroPoP amid funding challenges.
Haitian American midwife and filmmaker Stéphanie Etienne’s first documentary “Hearken to Me,” which examines the Black maternal well being disaster in the USA premieres June 15 as a part of the 18th season of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange. The collection confronted uncertainty after federal funding cuts however will return this yr.
For Etienne, whose mother and father immigrated from Haiti within the Nineteen Seventies, storytelling is inseparable from group, care and activism, values rooted in her upbringing in a tight-knit Haitian group in Queens, New York.
“I used to be there with tens of hundreds of different folks combating for the rights of Haitian folks,” Etienne mentioned, recalling a reminiscence of protests towards the 1990 FDA suggestion that successfully barred Haitian immigrants from donating blood, a coverage rooted in discriminatory beliefs.“It actually left a mark on me, it was my first publicity to activism and the ability of working in group.”
“Hearken to Me” follows three Black ladies navigating being pregnant, childbirth and the well being care system within the U.S. What begins as a portrait of maternal well being advocates evolves right into a layered story of systemic inequity.
Etienne, who has labored as an authorized nurse-midwife since 2011, mentioned the movie attracts immediately on what she witnessed in scientific settings.
“The Black ladies who have been coming into the group clinic […] have been having extra issues, harder outcomes than their white counterparts,” she mentioned. “It wasn’t about what ladies have been doing as people. It was extra about how the well being care system was treating them, how their wants weren’t essentially being responded to appropriately.”
Slightly than approaching the subject as outdoors observers, Etienne and her co-director Kanika Harris positioned themselves inside the story.
“We made a documentary that was not about another group, however about ourselves,” Etienne mentioned. “We noticed ourselves within the movie.”
That strategy displays her philosophy as a midwife, the place care extends past bodily well being to emotional and environmental well-being.
“Midwifery is about how we look after an individual of their entirety,” she mentioned. “That has been on the core of the filmmaking course of.”
The documentary highlights not solely disparities in maternal well being outcomes but in addition the underlying forces driving them, together with systemic racism and bias in medical care.
One of many movie’s tales follows Dr. Shalon Irving, an epidemiologist and public well being researcher who studied inequities in well being outcomes and died three weeks after giving delivery in 2017 from issues of extreme hypertension.
“The form of cumulative stress and strain of racism in American society has an influence on our well being,” Etienne mentioned. “These are the issues ladies stroll into the well being care system with: issues which are unseen and unstated.”
By specializing in lived experiences relatively than statistics, the filmmakers goal to create a deeper emotional reference to viewers.
The movie’s launch comes as AfroPoP returns after practically shedding its 2026 season as a consequence of a $1.8 million federal funding rescission. The collection, produced by Black Public Media, has lengthy served as a platform for tales throughout the African diaspora.
“It’s invaluable to have establishments like Black Public Media (BPM) and PBS supporting filmmakers,” Etienne mentioned. “These are tales that folks may not encounter in any other case.”
She added that movies like “Hearken to Me” supply extra depth than conventional information protection.
“We all know the significance of telling our tales in our personal voices,” Etienne mentioned. “Not counting on sensationalized reporting, however exhibiting the complete complexity of what our communities expertise.”
Etienne’s Haitian heritage additionally informs her work, notably her deal with community-based care and midwifery.
She serves on the board of the Basis for the Development of Haitian Midwives, a corporation supporting maternal well being care in Haiti, the place midwives usually function main care suppliers.
“Midwives in Haiti are offering not simply delivery care, however sexual well being care and first well being care,” she mentioned. “Generally they’re the primary and solely well being care supplier in a group.”
Following its premiere, “Hearken to Me” will display throughout the U.S. and internationally, together with on the United Nations Everlasting Discussion board on Individuals of African Descent.
“Congress’ 2025 rescission vote threatened this season of AfroPoP, however it didn’t cease it,” mentioned BPM Govt Director Leslie Fields-Cruz. “As AfroPoP returns and reaches its a centesimal movie presentation, it underscores each the endurance of the collection and the persevering with want for Black tales in public media.”
Etienne mentioned the aim is to achieve as many individuals as doable and spark conversations that result in change.
“I’m excited that folks could also be launched to the difficulty of Black maternal well being for the primary time by this movie,” she mentioned.
She has already began engaged on her subsequent undertaking: one other documentary, this time targeted on a Haitian artist dwelling within the U.S.
For now her focus stays on amplifying the voices on the coronary heart of “Hearken to Me.”
“It feels susceptible,” she mentioned. “However it feels actually essential to share what we’re experiencing.”