After Traci gets to work, she starts each shift with a prayer.
As the security guard for an unnamed abortion clinic in Atlanta, she relies on her faith and her wits as she scans the parking lot for patients and protestors in the darkness of the early morning hours. She stays on high alert until the last patient departs and the doors are locked.
The health care center is the focus of the HBO documentary The Devil is Busy, which was nominated for an Academy Award on Thursday for Best Documentary Short. The other nominees are All the Empty Rooms, Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud, Children No More: Were and Are Gone, and Perfectly a Strangeness.
Co-directed by Atlanta-based Christalyn Hampton, the 31-minute film features a searing look at the day in the life of health care workers battling for reproductive rights as they are besieged by protestors. Her previous work includes producing The Rebellious Life of Miss Rosa Parks and Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story.
Executive producer Soledad O’Brien posted on Instagram about the September premiere last year:
“I love this doc! We follow a deeply religious Af American security guard — a woman — who starts every morning with prayer. She prays that God safeguards the vulnerable women she’s escorting. While the chanting protesters — whom you hear throughout the doc — are also praying: that God casts judgement on these women. It’s emotional, honest and complicated. In puts you in the moment if what’s happening in the wake of the demise of Roe v Wade.”
The 98th Academy Awards will air Sunday, March 15, at 7 p.m. on ABC.
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