Singing Abortionist

Even if he is not widely recognized in the US, Henry Morgentaler is the face of a movement in Canada. Hailed by some and hated by others, the Polish-born abortion doctor survived the Lodz ghetto, Auschwitz and Dachau only to receive death threats decades after the Shoah when he repeatedly defied Canadian law and established clinics across the country. Award-winning director Dara Bratt spent years documenting the late doctor, capturing his public persona and his life behind closed doors. The product of seven years of work, The Singing Abortionist complicates Morgentaler’s status as icon by bringing to life his idiosyncrasies. We get to know Morgentaler as a professional and intellectual, concentration camp survivor and Canadian citizen, champion of a woman’s right to choose and womanizer. “If you dedicate your life to a cause, there’s a cost,” reflects his eldest son. While performing thousands of abortions and convincing Canada’s Supreme Court to legalize the practice, Morgentaler often neglected those closest to home. Yet even when his arrogance and self-proclaimed megalomania overrode his charm, Morgentaler never failed to captivate those around him with his magnetic personality. The Singing Abortionist is a probing portrait of a man whose story, in all of its guises, deserves to be told.

Dara Bratt is both a documentary and narrative storyteller who holds her MFA in film from Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. She has directed numerous short films, including her poetic short documentary, Flutter, shot in the jungles of Vietnam, to her narrative short In Vivid Detail, starring Golden Globe nominee Piper Perabo and John Ventimiglia, which examined the neurological condition of face blindness.Collectively, her films have screened all over the world, from the Tribeca Film Festival to SXSW and Cannes, The Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, Abu Dhabi International Film Festival, and ShortShorts Asia in Tokyo. Dara has been the recipient of many grants including the Alfred P. Sloan Production grant, the FAP grant from the National Film Board of Canada, the Tribeca Film Institute Sloan Award, and the documentary grant from the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts, and Sciences. She is currently working on her narrative thriller Church Lake. When she is not based in Brooklyn NY, Dara can be found in Montreal or Toronto, the two other cities she calls home.