Sundance 2022 Exclusive: Directors/ Producers Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt talk Documentary film Aftershock
Making its World Premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and playing in the U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION is Aftershock by producers and directors Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt.
An alarmingly disproportionate number of Black women are failed every year by the U.S. maternal health system. Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Isaac were vibrant, excited mothers-to-be whose deaths due to childbirth complications were preventable. Now, their partners and families are determined to sound a rallying cry around this chilling yet largely ignored crisis.
Directors Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee follow Gibson’s and Isaac’s bereaved partners, Omari Maynard and Bruce McIntyre, as they fight for justice and build communities of support, bonding especially with other surviving Black fathers. Their tragic, individual experiences are punctuated with condemning historical context, showing that gynecology has a long-standing history of exploiting and neglecting Black women in America.
Paula Eiselt directs and produces feature films about unforgettable characters thriving in unbelievable circumstances. Her passion for vérité storytelling about fearless trailblazers fighting for change resulted in the award-winning film 93Queen (POV, HBO Max). Now, with Aftershock, Eiselt uses her intimate lens to seek justice and reform and to keep memory alive.
Tonya Lewis Lee is a director, producer, and writer whose work through storytelling often explores the personal impact of social justice issues such as civil rights and criminal justice. Tonya’s most recent series SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT is now streaming on Netflix. Her most recent film MONSTER premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018 in the U.S. Dramatic Film Competition and is also currently streaming on Netflix.
For over a decade, Tonya has produced scripted and unscripted work, including such classics as MIRACLE’S BOYS, a six-part television series, and the television film THE WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM, based on the Christopher Paul Curtis novel.
In 2009, Tonya produced the documentary CRISIS IN THE CRIB for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, exploring infant mortality in the United States.