American Experience : A Midwife's Tale (1998)

Genres - Historical Film  |   Sub-Genres - Biography, Social History  |   Run Time - 90 min.  |   Countries - United States  |  
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Synopsis by Brooke Hodess

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, American Experience: A Midwife's Tale is an investigative unfolding of the life of an 18th century midwife, Martha Ballard, living on the Maine frontier. For 27 years, Ballard kept a diary in which she recorded the weather, daily household tasks, her midwifery duties, her medical practice, and countless incidents, which, through Ulrich's exploration, reveals the turmoil of post-Revolutionary America through a woman's eye. Social change, religious conflict, economic instability, as well as the grim realities of disease, domestic violence, and debtor's prison are all culled from the cryptic entries of Ballard's diary.

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Keywords

diary, midwife, chronicle, social-change, turmoil