Hormonal birth control influences women’s brains. Do we care? Get ready to see the invisible and hear the unheard as a dancer embodies real life stories of women’s experiences with contraceptives.

Women have long been seen as unreliable narrators of stories about their own bodies. Often at a very young age, we start taking hormones that have a profound effect on fertility, but also on mood, digestion, sexuality, stress response and partner selection. These experiences have long been sidelined. This hybrid film seeks to change that by visualizing real stories through dance scenes, collaborating with prize-winning Dutch physical theatre creator Bodine Sutorius.

Three women from radically different backgrounds share their real-life experiences, that take us into the many ways hormones can affect our lives – both in a negative and positive sense. The film explores the issue in a playful and factual way, leaving the viewer to make up their own mind. It pushes for thought but doesn’t tell anyone what to do with their own body. Taking hormones is an important choice that many people with a uterus face. The choice they make is up to them.

Director: Pien van Grinsven
In collaboration with: Bodine Sutorius
Phase: post-production
Completion: January 2023
Production house: Korrel Film, Rotterdam