THE JANES (A) - This is one of the most meticulous documentaries you might ever see, one that perfectly succeeds in telling its story. Directors Tia Lessin ("Citizen Koch") and Emma Pildes revisit the group of women in Chicago who helped women get abortions during the five years or so before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in January 1973. This film could not be more timely, now that Roe has been overruled.
The film is a celebration of ordinary people rising up to address a problem despite the obstacles. As one of the Janes -- Peaches (some women use their full names; others don't) -- summed things up about that period in Chicago: "It was a town where people did stuff." One of the leaders -- seen only in an interview from the 1990s -- sums up the mission: "We had a duty to disrespect a law that disrespected women."
The tone is set from the start, as one of the dozen-or-so women tells her personal story about getting an illegal motel abortion through a mafia connection, ending up abandoned in the bathroom with another woman after their procedures. That menace never really goes away, even as the Janes get proficient in shuttling hundreds of women a year through the process. As outlaws, they defied not just the legal system but also the medical establishment. The members also took on the chauvinism of the male-dominated anti-war movement they were affiliated with. The women, almost all of them white, acknowledge their own privilege that afforded them leeway with the law.
The presentation of the unassuming women, who ran the underground network sometimes with the cooperation of mobsters, is impeccably rendered, both narratively and visually. Just the archival footage of Chicago in the late '60s and early '70s is worth watching; it is painstakingly researched and rendered in support of the women's interviews. The level of visual detail -- shots of el trains or signs hawking S&H green stamps -- is an intoxicating immersion into a very specific time and place. Found footage of a random woman wearing a yellow dress and white-rimmed sunglasses bookends the film and speaks volumes just on its own.
The filmmakers are equally meticulous with the story they tell. Some of the women still have the index cards used to keep files on the clients who called them, down to the detail of the amount each person was willing to pay along the sliding scale. We meet "Mike," the main abortionist who was not a medical doctor, though he had been trained by one. We hear from a woman from a clerical consultation service, who worked with the Janes and wasn't fazed by funding from Hugh Hefner's Playboy company.
In true noir fashion, the filmmakers introduce a retired Chicago police detective, of the classic Irish variety of the era, who reluctantly acted on a tip and threatened to unravel the operation and rain serious legal consequences, all while the clock ticked down to the release of the Roe decision.
But the core of the film is the women, repeatedly seen in vintage photographs from the day in contrast with their grey-haired selves today, still full of passion and compassion. Their camaraderie is apparent even as their separate personalities emerge over the course of the film. One recalls her college days, helping a classmate cope with complications -- a truly sobering experience, as the Jane was high at the time. Another Jane was raised in Catholic schools and relates the relief she felt in falling in with a group of women who were not cruel to each other. This film is a valedictory these idealistic and daring women.
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