CCS Writing & Literature Faculty Wendy Eley Jackson Premieres "The Other Roe" at SBIFF

Jackson brings forgotten Doe v. Bolton into focus at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival

College of Creative Studies (CCS) Writing & Literature Faculty Wendy Eley Jacskon premiered her film, “The Other Roe”,’ at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival this past Wednesday, Feb 11, 2026, followed by an encore screening on February 13. 

The film shines a light on Atlanta attorney Margie Pitts Hames and Doe V. Bolton, the lesser-known Supreme Court case that accompanied Roe v. Wade and quietly established the broader framework for governing abortion access in the United States. 

For Jackson, the film serves as an opportunity to remind the public of a forgotten pillar of reproductive rights that expanded access, redefined health broadly, and impacted how care looked on a practical level across the country.

“As a storyteller, I am drawn to histories that have been buried not accidentally but systemically. Doe v. Bolton reveals how narratives are narrowed and simplified in ways that ultimately weaken public understanding of rights and power,” said Jackson. “This film is my way of restoring a missing chapter and honoring the people, particularly Black women, physicians, and advocates, whose lives and labor were central to that ruling.”

“‘The Other Roe’ exists because remembering is an act of resistance, and storytelling is how we reclaim what was never meant to be forgotten.”

—Wendy Eley Jackson, CCS Writing & Literature Faculty

Jackson holds Lecturer appointments at UC Santa Barbara in the College of Creative Studies Writing & Literature program and Film and Media Studies in the College of Letters and Science Humanities and Fine Arts Division.

Read more in The Current, February 9, 2026 and the Santa Maria Times, February 4, 2026.