The United States is the deadliest high-income nation for childbirth, and Black women bear the brunt of this emergency. As the climate crisis accelerates and pro-natalist policies gain popularity, Infertile Ground reveals how environmental destruction is making Black reproduction increasingly dangerous, while politicians demand more babies but dismantle the protections that would help Black families have healthy ones.
The Filmmakers
Reniqua Allen-Lamphere is a journalist who produces and writes for various outlets on issues of race, opportunity, politics and popular culture. Currently, she is developing a film on African Americans and art for Firelight Films. She is also a consulting producer for The Debutantes, a feature documentary about the revival of a Black debutante ball in the Rust Belt. Previously she was a Co-Executive Producer on BlackPop, a four-part series that she developed for NBC News Studios (E!/Peacock) and was a Senior Producer for The Problem with Jon Stewart (Apple TV+). She is currently working on two books, Fertility Noir (Penguin Random House) on Black families and fertility and another about the American Dream and Black culture (Columbia University Press). Her first book, It Was All A Dream was published in 2019. Reniqua has a Ph.D in American Studies from Rutgers University.
Crystal Whaley is a writer, director and EMMY Award winning producer in film/TV/digital with over 20 years of experience. Crystal recently co-executive produced 2024 NAACP Image Award Nominated & 2023 Critics Choice Award Nominated premium documentary series, ‘Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip Hop’ currently streaming on Netflix, produced an eight episodic narrative series for a streamer, served as a supervising producer for 2023 Emmy nominated MSNBC documentary series, ‘Model America’ and ‘They Called Him Mostly Harmless’ a documentary for Max premiering summer 2024. Crystal made her directorial debut with her feature length documentary film, ‘The Sound She Saw’ currently screening in multiple film festivals & museums, and made her scripted directing debut in 2023 for the eight episode scripted series, ‘The Table’ currently screening on BlackOakTV. She holds a Journalism degree from Howard University and a Film Production Certificate from New York University.