'Becoming Chaz' Debuts May 10 on Oprah's OWN | 'No Woman | No Cry' Free Online Until May 18, 2011

RedTracker| Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network has acquired three documentaries: the highly anticipated Chaz Bono documentary ‘Becoming Chaz’, Christy Turlington Burns’ ‘No Woman, No Cry’ and Siskel/Jacobs Productions’ ‘Louder Than a Bomb’. All will also join OWN’s Documentary Film Club.

‘Becoming Chaz’ will debut this Tuesday on OWN.

Making its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2011, ‘Becoming Chaz’ is the story of Chaz Bono’s emotional and physical transition from a woman to a man, a journey of identity and self-discovery.

Produced by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato World of Wonder productions, ‘Becoming Chaz’ is discussed in depth by Cintra Wilson, writing The Reluctant Transgender Role Model for the NY Times. Asked if he’s rebelling against Cher’s ‘almost drag-queenlike hyper-female persona’, Chaz says:

“I don’t think the way I grew up had any effect on this issue,” Chaz said. “There’s a gender in your brain and a gender in your body. For 99 percent of people, those things are in alignment. For transgender people, they’re mismatched. That’s all it is. It’s not complicated, it’s not a neurosis. It’s a mix-up. It’s a birth defect, like a cleft palate.”

‘Louder Than A Bomb’

‘Louder Than a Bomb’ is the award-winning story of youth poetry slams. It traced the citywide rivalry among very different 600 students and their 60 teams in Chicago.

Among the adolescents we come to know is Nate, a gifted student who survived a tough South Side neighborhood to become a charismatic mentor to younger slammers. Nova, an honors student, pulled through a tumultuous childhood and helps care for a disabled younger brother. The sweet and spirited Adam reminds observers of a young Allen Ginsberg. The Steinmetz crew includes Lamar and Big C, for whom success at LTAB means so much. Seattle Times

Louder Than A Bomb Trailer

‘No Woman | No Cry’

Supermodel Cindy Turlington’s documentary about maternal health debuted last night on OWN. You can watch ‘No Woman | No Cry’ online for 10 days beginning today.

All who know her understand that Christy Turlington Burns is an activist first and a supermodel second. Turlington may have just signed up for the A/W Louis Vuitton campaign, but her focus is sharing the powerful stories of at-risk pregnant women in four parts of the world, including a remote Maasai tribe in Tanzania, a slum of Bangladesh, a post-abortion care ward in Guatemala, and a prenatal clinic in the United States.

Nicholas D. Kristof writes today in Mothers We Could Save:

Here’s a Mother’s Day thought: There’s a way to save many of the world’s 350,000 women who die in childbirth each year. But it’s very controversial, for it’s called family planning.

Republicans in Congress have gone on the warpath this budget season against family planning programs at home and abroad. To illustrate the stakes, let me share a Mother’s Day story about a pregnant 30-year-old Somali woman named Hinda Hassan.

Read on and see a video about the film:

Christy Turlington’s Maternal Health ‘No Woman No Cry’

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