Nica Stories
Short documentary series
Locations: Managua & Matagalpa, Nicaragua
Status: Post-production
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Story 1
Working title: "Curbing high breast cancer death rates in Nicaragua"
Description: Treatable cancers are disproportionately targeting and taking the lives of Nicaraguan women, of which breast cancer mortality rates have become inflated due to systemic failures to prioritize prevention. In a country that is 80% rural and public healthcare is not well integrated outside the capital, a grassroots initiative aimed at detecting early signs of breast cancer sprouted up in an unlikely place, a coffee farm called Finca Fara. This short visual profile captures patients and staff at Clínica Fara, a women’s health clinic that opens its doors to the underserved communities of the Nicaraguan highlands. But for many of these women marginalized by poverty sometimes just getting to the clinic is the most deterring obstacle.
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Story 2
Working title: "Nicaragua’s total ban on abortion costing the lives of mothers"
Description: We sit in the living room of Leslie Briceño, a 38 year old mother to her teenage son and legal advocate for women’s reproductive rights, as she recounts her story of surviving an ectopic pregnancy. She describes awaiting life-saving treatment as a form of torture, both physical and psychological. Any medical intervention on behalf of the mother that risks the fetus’ survival has been stringently criminalized since the total ban on abortions in Nicaragua went into effect in 2006. All but one doctor refused to act, honoring Leslie’s will to live. Six years later she is now a community organizer for a coalition called “Las Queremos Vivas” (We Want them [mothers, daughters, sisters, partners] Alive) devoted to political activism and passing legislation that would lift this discriminatory prohibition.
