HIGH, SOFT & OPEN (2024)

Friends, colleagues & strangers compare notes on their journeys with hormonal birth control — and its indelible effects on their mental health.

High, Soft & Open is a hybrid documentary that delves into the often-overlooked mental health side effects of hormonal birth control. Using intimate audio recordings with friends, colleagues, strangers, and people from the local community, the film weaves a tapestry of personal narratives that highlight women's shared, yet often silent, struggles with hormonal birth control. The anonymous interviews are brought to life with visually rich reconstructions, using actors to reconstruct the environments where these candid conversations occur.

High, Soft & Open reflects on the significant role of peer-to-peer knowledge sharing among women, which often eclipses the guidance provided by medical professionals, something that is exemplified by the use of quotes from the seminal feminist manual, Our Bodies, Ourselves (1970), asking how much have attitudes to women’s health really changed since the pill was first introduced.