THESE ARE MY HOURS is the story of one birth – start to finish. A total immersion into civilization's oldest ritual, it is the first documentary filmed entirely during a labor, told from the perspective of someone giving birth.
"These Are My Hours represents everything I believe as a woman, mother, midwife, and feminist. I was in tears just a few seconds in, and haven't stopped thinking about it since. We need more tools for the positive birth movement, and this film is the real deal."
- Margo Blackstone, Indie Birth
"These Are My Hours is the most beautiful, raw and honest birth film I've seen. As a midwife I've seen women give birth so many times. To know there's footage that's captured this experience so well makes me beyond grateful. I cannot wait to share this film with my clients.
- Marjolein Faber, Dutch Midwife
"While other documentaries on birth have faithfully recorded and narrated a wide range of birth stories, Kirschenbaum’s brings the viewer close to feeling the sensations of birth... This ability to access the physiology of birth through film on the level of the sensory, as opposed to just the visual, is rare."
- Anna Hennessey, Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley
"Whoever watches These Are My Hours becomes a companion, a godparent in this woman’s labor, a participant in a small yet enormous slice of life. The film contrasts the true glory of the female body and its muscular and existential potential: Emily is not just a pregnant woman; she is the primal life-giving woman who wishes to do, can do and does do. This is, simply and in all its complexity, experiencing a revelation - of a new person, who will grow up to view the female naked body naturally, with respect and curiosity, in its beauty and ugliness, the way it really is."
