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As a birth documentary, Listen to Me calls attention to racial disparities in Black maternal health outcomes.

LISTEN TO ME

Listen to Me is a powerful documentary that centers the voices of Black women and birthing people as they navigate pregnancy, birth, and care in America. Told through first-person stories, the film exposes the deep racial disparities in maternal health while honoring the strength, grief, joy, and resilience of its subjects.

The Listen to Me documentary sheds light on the state of Black maternal health in the United States.

More than a film, Listen to Me is a call to action, a cinematic tool for awareness, education, and healing.

Why This Film Matters

Every year, Black women in the U.S. are disproportionately affected by maternal health complications and mortality. Listen to Me offers an unfiltered, human lens into this crisis—creating space for deeper understanding and critical dialogue.

Whether you're a student, healthcare worker, policymaker, or community advocate, this film is for you.

Listen to Me is a film created to support education and awareness around Black maternal health.

This powerful documentary, Listen to Me, centers the issue of Black women maternal health with care and urgency.

It's in Our Mission

“We believe in honoring lived experiences, reclaiming our stories, and making space for healing.”

Listen to Me is a birth documentary that amplifies the voices of Black women and birthing people.

TRAILER

Listen to Me - Extended Trailer 2024

Listen to Me - Extended Trailer 2024

Watch the Trailer

Synopsis

"Listen to Me"

Runtime: 77 minutes | Genre: Documentary

Synopsis:

Listen to Me follows three Black women as they navigate the journey to motherhood in a system not built to protect them. What begins as a documentary about the pregnancies of maternal health advocates becomes a powerful archive of grief, resilience, and healing.

Woven together, these unique stories offer a profound look into the complex and layered lives of Black women and the core issues that place them at higher risk for complications from pregnancy and childbirth. Through intimate storytelling and wisdom passed from mothers to daughters, Listen to Me transcends statistics to reveal the quiet costs of survival, the weight of advocacy while grieving, and the audacity of joy in the face of systemic harm.

Listen to Me is a powerful call to break generational silence and center the voices of Black women. Through a life-course lens, the film reveals that true maternal health begins with how we protect, listen to, and honor Black women and girls long before they ever become pregnant. Listen to Me challenges us to shift the narrative from crisis response to generational care and to reimagine maternal health as a continuum of justice, healing, and radical listening.

'Listen to Me' Documentary - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Montreal Women Film Festival - 2025

'Listen to Me' Documentary - OFFICIAL SELECTION - BlackStar Film Festival - 2025

'Listen to Me' Documentary - OFFICIAL SELECTION - Columbia Maryland Film Festival - 2025

Through first-person storytelling, the Listen to Me film explores the crisis of Black maternal mortality.

Our Team

Our Creative Team

Kanika Harris

CO-DIRECTOR/PRODUCER

Kanika Harris, PhD, MPH is a behavioral health scientist with a special focus on health equity, maternal health, and women’s health based in Washington, D.C. Kanika is a mother of three, a near-miss survivor, a doula, and a birth justice advocate. Kanika’s work broadly focuses on social determinants of health, women’s health, and HIV prevention. Kanika received her master’s degree in public health and international development from Morehouse School of Medicine and her doctorate in health behavior and health education from the University of Michigan. Kanika currently serves as the director of maternal and child health for the Black Women’s Health Imperative. She serves as the maternal health equity advisor for the state of Maryland and the public health expert for the District of Columbia Mayor’s Commission on Lactation. She is an advisory council member of Birth Detroit. Listen to Me is her first film.

Stephanie Etienne

CO-DIRECTOR/PRODUCER

Stephanie Etienne, CNM, MPH is a midwife based in Baltimore, Maryland. Her
passion for reproductive justice was born from her work with the Community Birthing Project, a radical
doula collective based in New York City in the early 2000. She earned her nursing and midwifery degrees
from Columbia University. Stephanie serves on the boards of several organizations dedicated to reducing
maternal and infant mortality in the African Diaspora including the National Association to Advance Black
Birth (NAABB) and Foundation for the Advancement of Haitian Midwives (FAHM). She is also co-founder
of The Bloom Collective, a Baltimore-based community space dedicated to reproductive justice and
supporting perinatal health. Stephanie is a native New Yorker of proud Haitian descent. Her most cherished
role is mama to 3 amazing humans. Listen to Me is her first film.

Arielle Etienne

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Arielle Edmonson is a creative producer and strategic operator who bridges vision and execution. As Associate Producer for Listen to Me, she supported post-production, festival delivery, and the operational backbone of the campaign. With a background in nonprofit leadership, impact storytelling, and systems strategy, Arielle brings clarity to complex processes and a deep commitment to honoring Black women’s stories. Listen to Me is her first documentary film.

Mishka Brown

CONSULTING PRODUCER

Mishka Brown is an independent film producer whose work spans documentaries and narrative
features and short form pieces. Recent projects include Unfinished Business, a documentary about the first
25 years of the WNBA that premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2022 and She Paradise, a coming of age
film shot in Trinidad which premiered at AFI Film Festival in 2021 and is distributed by Goldwyn Films.

Marc Thomas

EDITOR

Marc Thomas is a Brooklyn-based award-winning filmmaker, editor, and sound designer who has worked in advertising, short films, music videos, documentaries, and art installations, where Marc has had the opportunity to collaborate with talented people like Bradford Young, Common, Terence Nance, Jenn Nkiru, Misty Copeland, Kamasi Washington, Brady Corbet, Nicolas Winding Refn, Dawoud Bey, Rashida Bumbray, Shawn Peters, and many others.

Bradford Young

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Bradford Young, ASC is an award-winning cinematographer and accomplished visual artist. He was the first African-American cinematographer to be nominated for an Academy Award for the film Arrival in 2017. His work can be seen in Solo: A Star Wars Story directed by Ron Howard and When They See Us directed by Ava Duvernay. Bradford is also co-founder and CEO of TRIBE 7, a film optics company specializing in customizable lenses and color science for film production.

Michael Wilson

CINEMATOGRAPHER

Michael Wilson is an award-winning cinematographer and gaffer. Known for his use of light and ability to achieve beautiful cinematic looks with small budgets. He creates naturalistic, moody images with a unique style for each production. With over 18 years of experience in camera lighting, Wilson’s work has premiered at Sundance, featuring films such as Jason Bourne, Lincoln, Step Up, and Netflix’s House of Cards.

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Our Official Selection

BlackStar Film Festival 2025

Support cinema for liberation! Join us at BlackStar Film Festival this July 31 – Aug 3 in person in Philadelphia or online around the globe for four days of ground-breaking films from Black, Brown, and Indigenous artists.

Get your screening tickets or an all-access pass.

BEHIND THE SCENES

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