Emily

Directed by Athena Gerasoulis

Length: 15:00
Producer: Athena Gerasoulis
Editor: Athena Gerasoulis
Cinematographer: Tsung-Yen Lin
Sound Designers: Elias Rivera

Synopsis: After a troubled childhood spent watching the steady decline of her mother’s psychological state due to the onset of postpartum depression, Emily Fontaine–well-educated, employed, and untouched by the characteristics that mark the typical cinematic portrayals of unplanned pregnancies–makes the decision to terminate her pregnancy and begin the process of qualifying for an early-term medication abortion. The film “Emily” presents a realistic depiction of the decision to postpone parenthood due to the difficult truth regarding the aftereffects of parenting with mental illness, a personal experience that Emily refuses to further repeat. We take a fully unobstructed look into the steps of obtaining an abortion from start to finish, the painstaking process of medical approval, physical observation, and the investigation of challenging personal topics that Emily must face to a nurse she has just met–all of which determine whether or not she is given a procedure, a decision that will change the course of her future. Follow Emily in the unfiltered journey of an experience that forces many women all over the world to face the quiet brutality of emotional, physical, and medical trauma in the plight to seek bodily autonomy for reasons more complex than we can ever understand.

Undergraduate
ag6141@nyu.edu

Athena Gerasoulis is an emerging filmmaker, creative writer, and recent alumnus of the undergraduate film program at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is a five-time national award-winning recipient of Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, with more than 30 literary publications, in genres such as personal memoir and poetry. In her freshman year, her essay (“Displaced: An Exploration of Loss, Memory, and Circular Time Through the Photography of Hiroshi Sugimoto”) was published in Mercer Street, a compilation of essays selected from the NYU freshman year writing seminar, and used as an academic text & component of the school curriculum for incoming students.

Upon entering the filmmaking world, she used her creative writing background to prioritize aspects of raw storytelling and real human experiences. She explores topics centered around cultural identity in the world of artistry, with hopes to one day inspire individuals of all backgrounds to break into the world of cinema. She has focused on developing her production experience in directing, screenwriting, and post-production editing. Currently, she is based out of New York City, where she continues to utilize all aspects of her lifetime experience as a biracial artist, creative writer, and dual-degree earner in the academic field of psychology–all of which she uses in order to create multi-dimensionality throughout her work.