Film Sampler: The Janes

Visit Events Full Calendar Mon, Nov 9, 2026 6:00pm–9:00pm Film Sampler: The Janes Mon, Nov 9, 2026 6:00pm–9:00pm Helmut Stern Auditorium Join us for Film Sampler , a series of film screenings focused on themes of protest and resistance. Watch a screening of The Janes (2022, 101 min), followed by a talk back with director Emma Pildes.

Police arrested seven women who were part of a clandestine network. Using code names, blindfolds and safe houses, they built an underground service for women seeking safe, affordable, illegal abortions calling themselves JANE.

These screenings are free and open to the public, no registration or ticket required. Film Sampler , organized in partnership with the U-M Department of Film, Television, and Media (FTVM), is offered in conjunction with the UMMA exhibition American Sampler: Activating the Archive .

Related Exhibition American Sampler Activating the Archive Jan 24, 2026 - Ongoing Vertical Gallery Related Event Film Sampler: Stonewall Uprising Helmut Stern Auditorium Mon, Sep 21, 2026 6:00pm–9:00pm Related Exhibition American Sampler: Activating the Archive About Emma Pildes Emma Pildes is an award winning filmmaker and the Director (along with Tia Lessin) and Producer of The Janes . The Janes , an HBO Documentary Film, had its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival, was shortlisted for an Oscar in 2022, and won three Emmys at the 44th News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

As one of Pentimento Productions’ co-founders and principal producers, Emma has produced Spielberg , Jane Fonda in Five Acts , Very Ralph , and most recently Billy Joel: And So It Goes – all for HBO Documentary Films. About Sara McClelland Sara McClelland is Professor of Psychology and Women’s & Gender Studies at the University of Michigan.

She examines how social and political environments shape who is imagined as deserving and undeserving of care. Her research focuses on abortion attitudes, particularly how people imagine the decision to have an abortion, as a way to understand the contemporary landscape of abortion policy in the U.S.

Lead support for American Sampler is provided by Joseph and Annette Allen, Nicole and Matthew Lester, Erica Gervais Pappendick and Ted Pappendick, Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer, Susan and Richard Gutow, U-M Arts Initiative, U-M Institute for the Humanities, the Mary L. Wolter Welz Fund, and the Marvin H. and Mary M.

Davidson Endowed Fund. Additional generous support is provided by U-M CEW+ Frances and Sydney Lewis Visiting Leaders Fund, U-M Phillip J.

Bowman Center for Scholarship to Practice, U-M Initiative for Democracy & Civic Empowerment, U-M Department of History, and U-M Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies.