What She Carries
Feature Documentary - in production
Production Partner - PageBoy Productions
Brit Hensel - Director
Taylor Hensel - Lead Producer
Shaadiin Tome - Director of Photography
What She Carries traces Indigenous mothers, families, and birth workers as they rebalance health with cultural knowledge and practice, taking back autonomy over birth, loss, body, and future—despite a medical system built to sever that connection.
Through intimate stories and community-led practices, the film explores a broader Indigenous understanding of life—our relationships to one another, our responsibilities as human beings, how we enter this world, how we leave it, and what we carry in between.
Our Team
We are a collective of storytellers and life-givers from eight distinct Tribal Nations, united by our vision to portray Native women on screen as we see them in our communities every day—powerful, joyful, gritty and abundant.
Our work on this film is grounded in personal relationships with birth workers, mothers, elders, and traditional leaders within our respective communities. Through this journey, we hope to shine a light on the unique differences and distinctions of our cultures, but the shared values and interconnectedness that unite us across Indigenous communities. Together, we seek to paint a fuller, more vibrant picture of womanhood, Indigenous identity, healing, the vast experiences within the life-giving cycle, and body sovereignty.
