“You will be blown away by the courage of these women.” - JAMIE FOXX | “This film will save lives.” - People Magazine | "This film is so incredibly important." - Whoopi Goldberg
Health Equity • Women's Rights • Women's Health • Endometriosis • Medical Education & HealthcareDate of Completion: 2023 | Run Time: 52 minutes | Language: English | Captions: Yes | Director: Shannon Cohn | Producers: Patricio Cohn & Shannon Cohn | Executive Producers: Hillary Clinton, Rosario Dawson, Corinne Foxx & Mae Whitman
Through the personal and inspiring stories of four women urgently searching for answers to mysterious symptoms, BELOW THE BELT exposes widespread problems in our healthcare systems that disproportionately affect women.
Jamie Foxx, Oscar-Winning Actor
“You will be blown away by the courage of these women.”
Woman's Hour | Emma Barnett, BBC Host
“A vitally important and powerful film.”
The New York Times | Megan Twohy, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist for breaking the Harvey Weinstein scandal
“I'm a freaking investigative reporter, and it took me more than two decades to get answers. Below the Belt rightly frames the disease as a social justice issue.”
People Magazine
“This film will save lives.”
The New York Times | Roni Rabin, Health Journalist
“The film just blew me away- it is so powerful. It should be required viewing for every medical student and OBGYN, nurse and more. I don’t think anyone who sees it will think of endometriosis the same way again.”
Whoopi Goldberg
"This film is so incredibly important."
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Executive Producer
“Endometriosis is an issue that has been overlooked, ignored and dismissed for so long. I hope these women's stories that Shannon has brought to the screen will result in a change towards how endometriosis is seen and handled. The statistics are overwhelming – more than 200 million women around the world suffer from endometriosis and associated symptoms. In the US, it often takes up to eight doctors and specialists before women are properly diagnosed. So much of women’s health is still not given the attention it deserves. We need to do more to raise visibility of this disorder, to get the medical profession to buckle down and provide more support, and we need more federal action, which is still going on in a bi-partisan way in the senate. This is a condition that needs to be recognized widely, so that more women can be helped immediately."
Rosario Dawson, Executive Producer
"We deserve to be believed. We deserve to be understood. We deserve to be empowered to understand ourselves, our bodies and any medical treatments presented to us. We deserve better across the entire healthcare system. Below the Belt aims to revolutionize the status quo so that people with endometriosis get what we deserve - the right to live healthy, informed, fulfilling lives."
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER OF BELOW THE BELT
REQUEST A GOOD TALK WITH SHANNON COHN
Shannon Cohn, is a filmmaker, lawyer and social impact producer who has worked across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas on topics related to gender equity and combating stigma and taboo. Her films and TV series have aired on PBS, Nat Geo, Discovery Channel, Amazon and Netflix.
Her new PBS documentary BELOW THE BELT, executive produced by Hillary Clinton and Rosario Dawson, approaches endometriosis as a social justice issue. The film is one element of a larger social impact plan to create meaningful change in endometriosis and women's health including increased research funding, policy changes, medical education initiatives and widespread awareness, including a teaching a Bioethics class at Harvard Medical School to first-year medical students utilizing the film in 2023.
Her previous film ENDO WHAT? was called "the first step in a plan for change" by NEWSWEEK and "film of the year" by THE GUARDIAN. Before becoming a filmmaker, Shannon practiced international law and was part of the legal team that prosecuted Enron in the largest white-collar crime investigation in FBI history.