Haitian American filmmaker Stéphanie Etienne brings Black maternal health crisis to screen in ‘Listen to Me’

Haitian American midwife and filmmaker Stéphanie Etienne’s first documentary “Listen to Me,” which examines the Black maternal health crisis in the United States premieres June 15 as part of the 18th season of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange. The series faced uncertainty after federal funding cuts but will return this year.

For Etienne, whose parents immigrated from Haiti in the 1970s, storytelling is inseparable from community, care and activism, values rooted in her upbringing in a tight-knit Haitian community in Queens, New York.

“I was there with tens of thousands of other people fighting for the rights of Haitian people,” Etienne said, recalling a memory of protests against the 1990 FDA recommendation that effectively barred Haitian immigrants from donating blood, a policy rooted in discriminatory beliefs.“It really left a mark on me, it was my first exposure to activism and the power of working in community.”

“Listen to Me” follows three Black women navigating pregnancy, childbirth and the health care system in the U.S. What begins as a portrait of maternal health advocates evolves into a layered story of systemic inequity.

Etienne, who has worked as a certified nurse-midwife since 2011, said the film draws directly on what she witnessed in clinical settings.

“The Black women who were coming into the community clinic […] were having more complications, more difficult outcomes than their white counterparts,” she said. “It wasn’t about what women were doing as individuals. It was more about how the health care system was treating them, how their needs were not necessarily being responded to appropriately.”

Rather than approaching the topic as outside observers, Etienne and her co-director Kanika Harris placed themselves within the story.

“We made a documentary that was not about some other group, but about ourselves,” Etienne said. “We saw ourselves in the film.”

That approach reflects her philosophy as a midwife, where care extends beyond physical health to emotional and environmental well-being.

“Midwifery is about how we care for a person in their entirety,” she said. “That has been at the core of the filmmaking process.”

The documentary highlights not only disparities in maternal health outcomes but also the underlying forces driving them, including systemic racism and bias in medical care.

One of the film’s stories follows Dr. Shalon Irving, an epidemiologist and public health researcher who studied inequities in health outcomes and died three weeks after giving birth in 2017 from complications of severe hypertension.

“The kind of cumulative stress and pressure of racism in American society has an impact on our health,” Etienne said. “Those are the things women walk into the health care system with: things that are unseen and unspoken.”

By focusing on lived experiences rather than statistics, the filmmakers aim to create a deeper emotional connection with viewers.

The film’s release comes as AfroPoP returns after nearly losing its 2026 season due to a $1.8 million federal funding rescission. The series, produced by Black Public Media, has long served as a platform for stories across the African diaspora.

“It’s invaluable to have institutions like Black Public Media (BPM) and PBS supporting filmmakers,” Etienne said. “These are stories that people might not encounter otherwise.”

She added that films like “Listen to Me” offer more depth than traditional news coverage.

“We know the importance of telling our stories in our own voices,” Etienne said. “Not relying on sensationalized reporting, but showing the full complexity of what our communities experience.”

Etienne’s Haitian heritage also informs her work, particularly her focus on community-based care and midwifery.

She serves on the board of the Foundation for the Advancement of Haitian Midwives, an organization supporting maternal health care in Haiti, where midwives often serve as primary care providers.

“Midwives in Haiti are providing not just birth care, but sexual health care and primary health care,” she said. “Sometimes they are the first and only health care provider in a community.”

Following its premiere, “Listen to Me” will screen across the U.S. and internationally, including at the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent.

“Congress’ 2025 rescission vote threatened this season of AfroPoP, but it did not stop it,” said BPM Executive Director Leslie Fields-Cruz. “As AfroPoP returns and reaches its 100th film presentation, it underscores both the endurance of the series and the continuing need for Black stories in public media.”

Etienne said the goal is to reach as many people as possible and spark conversations that lead to change.

“I’m excited that people may be introduced to the issue of Black maternal health for the first time through this film,” she said.

She has already started working on her next project: another documentary, this time focused on a Haitian artist living in the U.S.

For now her focus remains on amplifying the voices at the heart of “Listen to Me.”

“It feels vulnerable,” she said. “But it feels really important to share what we’re experiencing.”

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