“Why can’t we talk about not having children?” director Maxine Trump asks in a new trailer for “To Kid or Not To Kid.” The documentary explores the cultural pressure and stigma that childfree women face — including Trump herself. “For me and millions of men and women, it’s one of the biggest questions of our lives,” she says in the spot. Yet “people don’t think they have the choice of whether or not to have kids. And some have the choice taken away from them because they are unable to have children,” Trump emphasized in an interview with us.
We hear from those who are convinced that “childless women can never be happy,” “the childless choice is a sort of cancer in our culture,” and that people who don’t reproduce are “useless on earth.” These messages take a toll on those who are unable, unwilling, or uncertain about kids — and those who are 100 percent sure they don’t want children. “I’d rather die on the operating table than have a baby,” a character seeking sterilization explains.
Trump made her feature directorial debut with 2012’s “Musicwood.”
“To Kid or Not to Kid” made its world premiere at the 2018 edition of DOC NYC. You can catch the film in theaters in NY and LA November 15 or on VOD December 3.
