Experiencing Interruptions?

The Choice

LOGLINE
Behind every decision is a human story.

SYNOPSIS:
Debate about reproductive rights is often heated. But behind every family planning decision there is a human story. Using volumetric capture technology and creative design, this film lets us see from a different perspective the emotional and complex nature behind one woman’s Choice. In this unique VR documentary viewers will meet Kristen, a young Native American woman from Austin, TX who dreams of raising a family but instead finds herself facing a painful system that forces women into dehumanizing situations just to survive.

The Choice blends techniques from traditional documentary storytelling, personal conversation, and animation, using virtual reality and interactivity to redefine not only how we tell the stories, but how the audience experiences them and connects with the subject on a deep, emotional level.

  • Joanne Popinska
    Director
  • Joanne Popinska
    Writer
  • Joanne Popinska
    Producer
  • Tom C. Hall
    Producer
  • Zoe Roellin - Illustrator
    Lead Artists
  • Janal Bechthold - Composer
    Lead Artists
  • Michael Brinkman - Sound Designer
    Key Collaborators
  • Becca Little - Lead Software Engineer
    Key Collaborators
  • Hannah Estes - Unity Developer
    Key Collaborators
  • Sönke Kirchhof
    Key Collaborators
  • Ada Vaughan
    Key Collaborators
  • Project Type:
    Virtual Reality, Interactive Film
  • Minimum Runtime:
    24 minutes
  • Maximum Runtime:
    28 minutes
  • Average Runtime:
    25 minutes
  • Variable Runtime Details:
    There is a branching narrative, the viewers make selections of the questions they want to ask the interviewee. Decision-making time affects the runtime, as well as some of the answers extend the runtime a little.
  • Completion Date:
    November 16, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Student Project:
    No
  • International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
    Amsterdam
    Netherlands
    November 19, 2021
    International Premiere
    DocLab: Liminal Reality, IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction
  • SXSW
    Austin
    United States
    March 13, 2022
    North American Premiere
    Official Selection, Audience Award
Director Biography - Joanne Popinska

Dr. Joanne Popińska is a documentarian, sociologist, with Ph.D. in Film Directing (specialization VR) from the Polish National Film School in Łódź.
She dedicates her creative vision to initiate important conversations around complex topics such as human rights, animal rights, and the environment.
By using the latest technology and various narrative techniques, she is continually exploring how to get the attention of audiences and how to evoke empathy and interest in different perspectives.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

THE CHOICE is a series of interactive VR experiences where women talk about their choice to have an abortion. The young Native American woman sitting opposite you in the first episode is Kristen from Texas. As you talk to her about her experience, the initially empty space around you gradually fills with animated line drawings that reinforce the story which is already so poignant.

She talks about her and her husband’s longing for a child, their joy when she became pregnant, and the immense sadness when after 20 weeks it turned out that their unborn child had serious physical abnormalities. She also talks about the almost inhumanely obstructive attitudes she faced in the Texas health care system when making what was already such a difficult decision.

The title thus has a double meaning—it is about the actual choice that women make, as well as the freedom of choice that they are denied in far too many parts of the world.

Director Joanne Popinska is a Polish-Canadian. She was deeply moved by her home country’s actions that resulted in a near-total abortion ban in Poland in 2020. The Constitutional Court ruled that abortion in cases of severe fetal abnormalities was unconstitutional. Observing attempts aiming to revoke Roe v. Wade in the United States and the new Supermajority in the U.S. Supreme Court, she interviewed Canadians and Americans about their abortion experiences and the obstacles they faced.

THE CHOICE blends techniques from traditional documentary storytelling, personal conversation, and animation, using virtual reality and interactivity to redefine not only how we tell these women’s stories, but how the audience experiences them and connects with the subject on a deep, emotional level.