100
Though heartbreaking to watch, if not triggering, Aftershock remains essential viewing as it reveals another, underseen front in the unending battle for equality in the United States.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
The New York Times by Beandrea July
Aftershock is a moving ode to Black families in a society where too many forces work to tear them apart.
90
The tried and true way to break viewers’ hearts is to make them care deeply. Aftershock wastes no time in doing just that.
90
The Hollywood Reporter by Lovia Gyarkye
It’s a clear-eyed, but by no means exhaustive, documentary that investigates this underreported crisis without losing sight of the people processing the depths of their loss.
85
Paste Magazine by Natalia Keogan
In exposing the horrifying reality of giving birth while Black—and providing tangible alternatives for increasingly dangerous hospital births—Aftershock might very well save lives. Most importantly, the film immortalizes two mothers whose deaths never should have occurred, giving space for the innumerable victims of this crisis to similarly take action and memorialize those they’ve lost to senseless medical racism.
91
Aftershock is a powerful project inspired by loss, one that aims to move us closer to a world where all women, and especially Black women, are listened to and given the birthing experiences they deserve, so that we can one day begin to see an end to the abysmal statistics on maternal mortality in the United States.