From societal taboos and gender bias to misinformed doctors and profit-driven healthcare, Below the Belt: The Last Health Taboo exposes a widespread problem in our healthcare system with regard to the detection and treatment of endometriosis — a disease in which the endometrial tissue of the uterus grows in different parts of the body, causing extreme pain. The documentary film, which made its national debut on PBS on June 21, examines how the struggle to live with the disease has become an all-consuming battle with the American healthcare system – and it reveals how millions of people are being silenced.
Produced and directed by attorney and filmmaker Shannon Cohn, with executive producers Hillary Rodham Clinton, Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Rosario Dawson, Corinne Foxx and Mae Whitman, below the belt follows registered nurse Jenneh Rishe, Emily Hatch Manwaring and Brooklyn-based artist Kyung Jeon Miranda. The disease (which Cohn also addressed in his 2016 film Endo What?) threatens one in 10 women and remains a mystery to many. More often than not, the healthcare system’s message to subjects is that their pain is all in their head.
Jeon-Miranda’s art is woven with storytelling, presenting a captivating and excruciating depiction of her connection to femininity as well as her internal struggle with endometriosis. A Korean visual artist working primarily in painting, she is best known for her whimsical gouaches and watercolors of children in fantasy stories. The film brings its history and illustrations of the politics of the body to the conversation. These elements challenge established healthcare industry norms, systems, and beliefs regarding endometriosis, but they also serve as a cathartic and courageous expression of the often unspoken and traumatic realities of living with the disease.
Jeon-Miranda unknowingly began creating artwork on the subject of women’s health and endometriosis in 1998, when the subject matter was still largely unknown. Paintings like “Carry, Mis-carry and Un-carry” depict the struggle that many women experience with the disease and the very likely infertility and conception problems that result. About one-third to one-half of women with endometriosis have difficulty getting pregnant. What are you carrying with you, she asks in her work. The memories of the hospital gown after a miscarriage? The emptiness of losing a child or the feeling of motherhood as a distant journey you may never complete? The artist’s soft, gentle aesthetic contrasts sharply with the complex and sometimes devastating stories the works tell.
In a bipartisan effort to raise the profile of the fight against endometriosis, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) co-hosted a screening of below the belt this past March. In a virtual introduction, Hillary Clinton said, “The purpose of this film is to change both hearts and minds in ways that advance policy, research, funding, education and widespread awareness. . The film effectively raises awareness of endometriosis and thus lays the essential foundations for improving the recognition of the disease and its realities by the health system.
Below the Belt: The Last Health Taboo is available to stream on PBS.
