Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Filmmaker Monique N Matthews Is Helping To Change Our World
The people who inspire me most are ones who can choose compassion and integrity when standing up for what they believe in. It is very easy to allow the anger we feel from injustice to devolve into bitterness and rage. And, there is a time when rage is essential, for bottled up emotions can cause us to self-destruct. However, I am always drawn to those who choose to be kind, even when the kindest thing is to hold someone accountable for their actions. Choosing kindness does not mean that one is weak or a push over. Quite the contrary: kindness allows one to be held accountable for their actions while also pointing a path for restorative justice.
As a part of our series about “Filmmakers Making A Social Impact” I had the pleasure of interviewing Monique N. Matthews.
Born in Harlem, New York, Monique N. Matthews is a Los Angeles-based award-winning director and writer. Monique is the director and co-writer of BIRTHING JUSTICE, a feature-length documentary exploring the Black maternal health care crisis in America. Released in 2023, BIRTHING JUSTICE has currently screened in four film festivals, and has won “Best Documentary Feature” in each festival that it has screened.
Website: moniquenmatthews.me
Thank you so much for doing this interview with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit. Can you share your “backstory” that brought you to this career?
Activism and story-telling have always gone hand in hand for me. My first job was as a volunteer counselor for the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) Summer program in my hometown of Harlem, New York. I was younger than all of my friends, so I wasn’t able to be paid. New York has well-intentioned rules for minimum age for youngsters to work. But, no one could stop me from showing up on-time every day and teaching kids younger than me to not only read, but enjoy the transportation to new worlds that literature affords. Throughout high school, college, grad school and film school, I continued to volunteer and share my love of story-telling, first as a hip hop journalist and editor and later as a filmmaker.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Ha! Such a great question to ask. I had a very big out of town shoot with one of my literary heroes in a very small college town where she was retiring from teaching. There wasn’t enough crew, so I volunteered to serve as a camera person while directing and producing. Well, I did a fantastic job directing our talent, cinematographer and other crew members. I found great angles with the camera. I was very proud of myself indeed, until I called cut, and went to turn off my camera. It turned on, instead! Yep, I missed everything! Thank God, we had other cameras. We did a pick-up shoot to cover my angle. I learned so much about what happens when you over commit. Sometimes we can’t do everything, and that’s okay. So grateful for the grace my crew and Executive Producer showed me in allowing me to make up for that very big mistake.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
When I was in grad school receiving a Master of Arts in African American Studies, my department asked me to be the student escort for Angela Davis, whose burgeoning activism took center stage while she was a young professor at UCLA. I had a Honda Civic, which worked well, but there was a problem with the front passenger side door. It would not open from the outside. I had been hit in an accident, and for fear that it would raise my insurance rates, I never reported the accident. Hence, I did not have money to fix it. Ms. Davis was extremely gracious with the broken door, acting as if it wasn’t there, while I embarrassingly opened and closed it for her in the most unorthodox way. I had a scarcity mentality, and found myself ashamed that I came in such wonderful contact with one of my greatest heroes, but was not able to give her the best treatment because I had been selling myself short. It was one of the greatest lessons I learned: claim what is owed and due to you, so that you can do your best for those who mean so much to you.
Which people in history inspire you the most? Why?
The people who inspire me most are ones who can choose compassion and integrity when standing up for what they believe in. It is very easy to allow the anger we feel from injustice to devolve into bitterness and rage. And, there is a time when rage is essential, for bottled up emotions can cause us to self-destruct. However, I am always drawn to those who choose to be kind, even when the kindest thing is to hold someone accountable for their actions. Choosing kindness does not mean that one is weak or a push over. Quite the contrary: kindness allows one to be held accountable for their actions while also pointing a path for restorative justice.
Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview, how are you using your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share with us the meaningful or exciting social impact causes you are working on right now?
Birthing Justice, a film that I directed and co-wrote, is a feature documentary that looks at the Black maternal health crisis. If the United States was just comprised of Black women, it would rank 37 out of 37 developed nations in maternal health care. As is, the US ranks 23rd out of 37, so we know that women of other races aren’t faring too well either. In fact, white women in other countries are having far more successful birthing outcomes than white women in this country.
The charge of our film is in the title — we seek justice in birthing. We want all women to have a beautiful birthing story. We do this while presenting Black joy as a tool, a weapon, an approach to tackling this issue head on, so that we can eliminate this crisis in our lifetime. 80% of Black maternal deaths are preventable. One of the ways you see the parents, birth workers, legislatures, and advocates confront this issue head on is through joy, finding reasons to smile through all the hardship and turmoil. Black joy is something that Black people have used since we were brought enslaved to these lands 400 years ago. It fuels the rhythm behind our blues and as Stevie Wonder says in the song of the same name, “The joy inside our tears.”
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and take action for this cause? What was that final trigger?
Executive Producers Denise Pines and Jacoba Atlas (who also served as co-writer with me) invited me to board this project. After they approached me, I did a deep dive into the issue. The most shocking, angering, and numbing realization is that this crisis is hiding in plain sight. Too many Black women are unnecessarily dying. Far too many more are having near death experiences that are completely unavoidable and which are resulting because of neglect, stress, and other by-products of systemic racism. The system must change. I am tired of Black people apologizing for basic humanity. I assume our humanity at a base level and revel in participating in Birthing Justice and any other project that shifts the narrative.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
Since our national release in January 2023, we’ve had over 150 grass roots screening across the country. I have been privileged to attend about 20. Inevitably, at each screening, someone comes up to me after the screening or may reach out through Direct Message on Instagram, my preferred form of social media, to share: “This happened to me, and I did not know.” Most of us hear that birth is difficult, so when many women encounter difficulty, they believe that it is par for the course. However, after watching Birthing Justice, many women realize that they have been victimized by the very system that is supposedly in place to help them. Awareness allows them to assert agency over their care and help empower others to do the same.
Are there three things that individuals, society or the government can do to support you in this effort?
Eradicating the systemic injustice that affects Black maternal health care requires a multi-pronged approach. There is no one way to fix this issue, so thank you so much for this question. One of the first things we need to do is hold institutions accountable. Hospitals who provide poor maternal care treatment and/or continue to employ birth care employees whose demonstrated negligence has caused injury or death need to be held financially accountable for their actions. We need to tie insurance and government payments to demonstrated accounts of wellness and well-being. We need to hold local and state politicians accountable for regional measures that would ensure better health outcomes. We ask everyone to find out what’s needed in your state to make sure every woman has access to a beautiful birth story — Medicaid, paid doula care, better financial and emotional support for birth care workers — and make sure to pass laws at this level. Nationally, we need to support MOMNIBUS, a series of bills designed to bring equity in maternal and infant care treatment, and make sure it passes. Call your congressperson. Call your senator. List maternal health care as one of the issues you want our upcoming presidential candidates to address. Let’s do all we can, in all ways that we can, to end this health care crisis now.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
Five things is a lot. That’s like telling a five-year-old five, when you drop him/her/they off for their first day of school, “Here are five things you need to know that will follow you throughout your career as a student (which includes 12 years of schooling and a minimum of four years in college).”
No, you show up. Hold their hand. Look them in the eye, tell them you love them, hug them, and share that whatever they face, they are loved, and that you are there to support them each step of the way.
Each journey brings its own lessons and reward.
Respectfully, I’m going to beg out of this question. Also, I am very open to doing a video, but I am not responding well to this question. If there’s another question you’d like for me to answer in a video format, please let me know.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Muhammad Ali shared, “Service to others is the rent you pay for the room you rent on earth.” There’s no need to reinvent what has already been said. Ali is still the greatest, and it doesn’t get much better than this quote.
We are very blessed that many other Social Impact Heroes read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would like to collaborate with, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
No. I don’t extol anyone I don’t personally know, because how someone presents is just how they present. I find that the work brings the right people into your circle.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Fail. Fail fast. Fail forward.
Mistakes are essential part of growing. Sometimes the fear associated with failing paralyzes us from any forward motion. So, the most important thing is deliberate action towards the thing you want most. Motion places us in the direction of what we want most. Even if you find yourself on the wrong track, you know which one not to take in the future. Hence, forward motion. In essence, it’s my take on one of my favorite quotes by Miles Davis. “Do not fear mistakes. There are none.”
How can our readers follow you online?
Instagram: Instagram.com/moniquenmatthews
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moniquenmatthews
This was great, thank you so much for sharing your story and doing this with us. We wish you continued success!
Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Filmmaker Monique N Matthews Is Helping To Change Our… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.