The night is full of them
La nit n’és plena (The night is full of them) is the first Aina Melià Penyafort’s fiction short film, which tells the story of Alba, a seventeen-year-old who discovers she is pregnant and faces, with the help of her father, the journey of finding a way to have an abortion.
A Digital Films production with the support of ICEC.
PROJECT
In development
CATEGORY
Fiction
FORMAT
Short film
<<But though they are gone, the night is full of them.>>
- Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway.
As I get deeper in the creative process, I realize that this story is not just mine. It belongs to all women who have lived an abortion, voluntarily or forcibly; to all women who could not have lived it because it was banned, and also to all women who have a mother, a sister, a daughter, or a friend who has had an abortion. And when I realize that this includes all of us, my individual pain – my catharsis – becomes a collective process.
Since 1985, Spanish law authorises women to have abortions. However, the right to abortion has never stopped being a questioned issue, often among men who, due to their biological nature, will never be able to understand the physical and psychological process that a woman undergoes before, during, and after an abortion. Simone de Beauvoir said, ” Never forget that it only takes one political, economic or religious crisis for women’s rights to be put in jeopardy. Those rights are never to be taken for granted, you must remain vigilant throughout your life.” Therefore, talking about abortion is and will always be essential.
According to data from the Association of Sexual and Reproductive Rights (2021), 40% of all abortion centers in Spain are located in Catalonia. Altought in the Catalan public health system 44% of gynecology professionals are against abortion, and this is one of the reasons why there are still 12 regions in Catalonia where abortions are not practiced, most of them located in Lleida’s province. This means that 1 of each 4 women who has an abortion in Catalonia ends up paying a private clinic to do so.
However, what interests me here is not only to claim the right to abortion but also our right to speech. An abortion is an intimate and difficult experience, which is not always wanted to be talked about, but there are also many women who opt to the unwritten law of silence because of shame and guilt.
To heal this stigmatization education is essential. My profession allows me to work directly with teenagers and know the problems surrounding this vital stage. This makes me aware that, to this day, sexual education remains an unresolved issue in our society, just as it was 10 years ago when I myself was the teenage girl who became pregnant.
<<One day, suddenly, after so many years, the blood began to flow from the small black box of my mind, which I thought I had eliminated.>>
- Yoko Ono
Project selected in the 7th edition of Dones Visuals' AccióCurts program
But change cannot come only from education. We need references – written and visual – which explain experiences, rich and diverse, linked to abortion. Unfortunately, there are few audiovisual works that make abortion visible from a central theme, and even fewer when it comes to teenage abortion. That’s why short films like La nit n’és plena are absolutely necessary.
TEAM
TEAM
Direction and script
Aina Melia Penyafort
DOP
Andrea Mezquida-Torrent
Art Direction
Sarah Zelich Pilgrem
Film editing
Carlos Múrcia Sánchez
Head of direct sound
Ginebra Alfonso Abril
Composition of BSO
Bianca Steck
