• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, October 28, 2024

A haunting film from All In Action Fund and Klick Health repurposes contemporary political quotes, setting them in a courtroom reminiscent of Salem’s infamous trials to spotlight the rollback on abortion rights in America.

“The Trial” follows Claire, a character inspired by a real-life court case in Texas, as a mob drags her through the town square and ties her up.

Gradually, clues appear, like a car in the background and members of the crowd using their cell phones to film her humiliation, hinting to viewers that the spot is set in America, 2024, not Salem, Massachusetts, circa 1692.

But it isn’t until halfway through the five-minute film that viewers become aware of the most terrifying detail. All dialogue, with lines like “Shame on you for killing babies,” “It’s not your body anymore,” and “You weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down”  -- are from contemporary American legislators, much of it spoken in Congressional testimony.

“By using real-world present-day quotes, we wanted to remind people of how far we're falling backward, as abortion bans across the U.S. criminalize women and healthcare providers,” says Amy Fortunato, group creative director at Klick Health, the agency that worked with All In to create the spot.

She tells Marketing Daily that the film grew out of Klick’s concern about women's health. “We couldn’t ignore the impact that the overturning of Roe v Wade had, putting women’s lives in danger. We wanted to use our storytelling to make a difference, especially before an election when reproductive rights are on the ballot.”

Working with Andrea Bistany, also a group creative director at Klick, she says the creative spark came from focusing on the ways current conservative policies are dragging women backward, and how similar certain Congressional proceedings seemed to the infamous Salem witch trials of the 17^th century. “We tried to bring that haunting imagery alive, using real-world, present-day quotes.”

The pair acknowledge that they could have made a throwback film to, let’s say, the 1960s, before Roe V. Wade made abortion access legal in all states. “But we wanted to focus on how dangerous the current rhetoric is, and how it’s the fear of prosecution and the criminalization -- not just of women but making doctors afraid to help women -- that is having such a harmful impact,” Fortunato says. “We know women are dying. We know that infant mortality rates are going up. And we felt like the Salem metaphor was the best way to bring that to life.”

The Klick team hope the film catches fire among viewers and pro-choice voters looking for new types of video. “We wanted to bring creative content into All In’s media plan, and engage their audience in a different way, with a bold call to action,” Bistany adds. “We hope people will feel provoked and angry. And of course, we hope they will vote.”

She says the appearance of cellphones as crowd members begin to film Claire’s trial is important, and -- she hopes – another way to spark action. “We're all here watching this unfold in our country. And we’re asking, 'What can we do about it?’ And the phones also introduce the paradox of these bans -- even as we live in a world that is contestably advancing in terms of technology, we’re dragging people back to much darker times.”

The film, directed by Gandja Monteiro, is running on a dedicated website, All In’s social channels, AMC networks and in film festivals.