29 November 2022

The conscientious journeys and decision-making processes by people who don’t have children, often remain unacknowledged stories and contributions. Further, as our community of people without children grows in separate directions, namely via the identities childless and childfree it must be acknowledged that these identities most often reflect only the end points of this continuum.

So, who are we as a collective community? What do the not so tidy experiences of people without children whose paths were not a simple “yes” or “no” look like, and how might the melding and choosing of ‘childless’ and ‘childfree’ identification be more complex than it is generally expressed? Our guest today is award-winning filmmaker, Maxine Trump, In her film, “To Kid. Or Not to Kid”, Maxine shares her own journey on this continuum. Her film bravely plunges into an aspect of reproductive choice often misunderstood, mischaracterized, or considered too taboo to discuss.

With rising public awareness about climate change, resource scarcity and global population, her film asks the question “Why can’t we talk about not having children?” Join us for this conversation as we navigate these questions and more!

Maxine Trump
Maxine Trump is the award-winning director of the New York Times Critics’ Pick “Musicwood”, and the first English feature documentary on the subject — aiming to dispel the myth that living childfree is weird, selfish or somehow wrong, “To Kid or Not to Kid.” Her film bravely plunges into an aspect of reproductive choice often misunderstood, mischaracterized, or considered too taboo to discuss.

With rising public awareness about climate change, resource scarcity and global population, this film asks the question “Why can’t we talk about not having children?” Maxine worked for the BBC in London for seven years as a development executive for scripted comedy before emigrating to the USA, working as a TV commercial director and producer for eight years. She won BDA awards for her work on numerous commercial projects for Network TV and agency clients.

She went on to direct documentaries for Sundance, TNT, BBC, TLC, Discovery etc. Her previous feature film “Musicwood” was a New York Times Critics pick, festival award winner and played on TV and in theaters around the world. Maxine is the author of the books “The Documentary Filmmakers Roadmap” published by Routledge, and “Making a Scene in Documentary Film” published by Taylor & Francis Ltd, with a release date of 30 December 2022. She is a Sundance advisor and teaches documentary filmmaking at the New York Film Academy. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and inquisitive cat, and is always seeking new stories to tell.

Listen to Episode:

Learn more about Maxine’s work and view her film, “To Kid or Not to Kid” here!

Maxine’s new book, “Making a Scene in Documentary Film: Iconic Filmmakers Discuss What Works and Why” will be available to pre-order on February 9, 2023.