The Friday Film series opens with a film and invitation to personal dialogue at 7:00 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12, at the newly renovated Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Salina, 901 East Beatrice. Martha Shane and Lana Wilson’s After Tiller film deals with one of our most unsettling, and unsettled, issues: Abortion. Instead of the regular discussion format after the film, attendees will be invited to share personal one-on-one stories leading to their views on the subject.

After Tiller intimately explores the highly controversial subject of third-trimester abortions in the wake of the 2009 assassination of practitioner Dr. George Tiller. In 2009, he became the eighth North American abortion care worker to be assassinated since Roe v. Wade.

The procedure is now performed by only four doctors in the United States, all former colleagues of Dr. Tiller. After Tiller moves between the stories of these four doctors – two men and two women – all of whom were close friends and colleagues of Dr. Tiller, and are fighting to keep this service available in the wake of his death.

After Tiller follows these four doctors as they confront a host of obstacles – from moral and personal dilemmas to restrictions placed on their practices by state legislation. Rather than trying to take a comprehensive look at the heated political debate surrounding abortion, the film weaves together revealing, in-depth interviews with the doctors with intimate verité scenes from their lives and inside their clinics, where they counsel and care for patients at profoundly important and challenging crossroads in their lives.

Variety magazine said, “Shane and Wilson manage a rare feat in After Tiller, making a calm, humanist documentary about a hot-button topic, and it deserves the widest possible audience.”

UU’s Friday film series is offered free to the public. It promotes public discussion and understanding and provides worldviews not always available in mainstream media. Refreshments are provided and donations are appreciated.