A GIRL LIKE HER
a film by Ann Fessler
From Reviews of A GIRL LIKE HER
“Of all the films screened by the Indy, Ann Fessler’s A Girl Like Her, stands out as one of the most thought-provoking. This one will hit you in your gut and keep you up at night.” Colorado Springs Independent, “Femine Mystique” by Bret Wright, October 31, 2012
“Fessler offers a sociologically rich and important deconstruction of a devastating double social standard that was in effect in those days. In revealing the painful legacy that permanently impacted so many birthmothers, Fessler has finally and respectfully given them a voice and created a powerful collective portrait that will benefit everyone touched by adoption. The film is a primer in empathy for adoptees from this generation struggling to understand why their birthmothers gave them up.”
ART HOUND review by Geneva Anderson, October 6, 2012,
“A Girl Like Her” Ann Fessler’s haunting group portrait of women who surrendered their children for adoption in the 1950s and ’60s juxtaposes their voices with stock archival images from an era when wrenching human drama was buried beneath airbrushed images of family and sexuality.
THE WASHINGTON POST, Entertainment, June 15, 2012, “Ten movies not to miss at Silverdocs” by Ann Hornaday
“Precise, daunting, and also allusive, this story recalls those bad old days … when ignorance, silence, and repression were the preferred social strategies … decidedly anti-nostalgic … heart-wrenching.”
–PopMatters, by Cynthia Fuchs, Film and TV Editor, June 19, 2012
“By mixing up the women’s stories, Fessler smartly underscores the universality of their experiences, and her use of archival footage—the images of the era as it wished to see itself, full of happy families and perfectly cooked casseroles—contrasts effectively with the messy realities the women describe.”
–WASHINGTONIAN by Jessica Voelker, June 18, 2012
“quietly devastating”
Washington City Paper, by Tricia Olszewski • June 15, 2012
“A Girl Like Her”, a new film by Ann Fessler, visually expresses the trappings of an era unthinkable by the standards of today … with a punishment that far surpassed the crime. Scenes in the movie unleashed all too familiar memories. That evening I grieved for all the young mothers and yet felt liberated to see that our ordeal had been real, not imagined.”
–American Adoption Congress DECREE, Summer 2012 – Vol. 29/No.2 “Musings from the Colorado Conference” by Donnie Davis, surrendering mother and President of American Adoption Congress
“Women recall … in riveting detail … their parents’ reactions, life in the unwed others home and the lifelong emptiness they have felt as a result of losing a child. Think times have changed? Two words: Rick. Santorum.”
–Independent Weekly, by Lisa Sorg, April 11, 2012, Durham, NC, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Reviews
Strongly recommended film
Full Reviews
Otste, Review by Dan Schindel, “A GIRL LIKE HER”
Colorado Springs Independent, “Femine Mystique”
Art Hound, “A Girl Like Her, Ann Fessler’s quietly devastating documentary addresses mothers of a certain generation who gave up babies for adoption screens Sunday at the 35th Mill Valley Film Festival”
The Washington Post, “Ten Movies Not to Miss at Silverdocs”
Washingtonian, “Silverdocs Reviews: “A Girl Like Her,” ” Meet the Fokkens,” and “Virgin Tales”
Washington City Paper, A Girl Like Her, Directed by Ann Fessler
PopMatters, Silverdocs 2012: “A Girl LIke Her” + “Virgin Tales
Independently Weekly, Durham, NC, “Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Capsule Reviews”
“A Girl Like Her packs an emotional wallop greater than most other films released this year, documentary or fiction.”
Review by Dan Schindel for Otste, November 18, 2012
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