Film Description
All My Babies: A Midwife’s Own Story (1952)
Sponsor: Georgia Dept. of Public Health. Production Co.: Medical Audio-Visual Institute, Association of American Medical Colleges. Director/Producer/Writer: George C. Stoney. Camera: Peaslee Bond. Music: Louis Applebaum. Editor: Sylvia K. Cummins. Cast: Mary Coley. Transfer Note: Scanned from a 16mm print held by the Library of Congress. Running Time: 19 minutes.
Portrayal of African American midwives in rural Georgia, with a focus on the work of Mary Coley in Albany. The film traces the course of pregnancy through birth.
Note: Although designed principally for training certified midwives, the film was widely praised and screened for broader audiences. Selected for the National Film Registry. For more about George Stoney, see Lynne Jackson, “Filmography,” Wide Angle 21, no. 2 (1999): 168–81.
Resources
Center for Mass Communication, 1954 Sales and Rental Catalog (New York: Center for Mass Communication, Columbia University Press, 1954), 3; George Stoney, “All My Babies: Research,” in Film: Book 1: The Audience and the Filmmaker, ed. Robert Hughes (New York: Grove Press, 1959), 79–96; Lynne Jackson, “The Production of George Stoney’s Film All My Babies: A Midwife’s Own Story (1952),” Film History I (1987): 367–92; Lynne Jackson, “A Commitment to Social Values and Racial Justice,” Wide Angle 21, no. 2 (1999): 31–40.