Karen Day
Fellowships 2022
My purpose as a filmmaker is to create compelling and artistic visual platforms that speak for those who have less opportunity to tell their stories in a public forum. The focus of my films is to enlighten audiences to injustice and document people of unlikely accomplishment that inspire positive social change and promote human equality.
My current and 12th feature-length documentary, Voices from the Field, tells the story five OBY GYN physicians working to save the lives of delivering mothers in the most remote regions of the Amazon, Himalayas, India, Kenya- and surprisingly, the U.S. Post-partum hemorrhage is the number one killer of birthing mothers, and death is preventable, especially with the use of an 80 -cent device invented Dr. Thomas Burke, a Harvard professor and Director of the Harvard Human Rights and Global Health Dept. at Massachusetts General Hospital. The challenge remains however, that the international medical establishment has been reluctant to adopt the use of this device for lack of profit potential. Voices from the Field follows the struggles and successes of five courageous female doctors who employ this device and continue to save mothers in the most dire circumstances. Filming was completed all over the world during 2019 by an entirely female film crew from Idaho.
I consider this film to be one of my most important because the content can inspire change that will literally save lives. The work of these amazing doctors will raise public awareness about preventable PPH deaths of birthing mothers and inspire the use of this simple, economical device.