Guest Perspective: We invite perspectives that expand how we understand women's health, work, and the body.
Menstruation has long been shaped by silence, stigma, and systems designed to keep women disconnected from their own bodies. For filmmaker Rebecca Snow, those forces became impossible to ignore while directing Pandora’s Box, a documentary exploring menstrual inequity and the cultural taboos that continue to shape cyclical health.
An award-winning narrative and documentary writer, director and producer, Rebecca has directed three feature-length documentaries and more than 15 hours of broadcast television. She is the recipient of a Canadian Screen Award for documentary directing and was named Best Canadian Director at the 2024 Oakville Film and Arts Festival for her debut narrative feature, The Boy In The Woods.
Through her work, Rebecca approaches women’s health with storytelling that is both deeply personal and politically revealing. In this conversation with Two Moons, she reflects on why Pandora’s Box was created to “fling open the lid” on menstrual stigma, why silence around women’s biological transitions is structural rather than accidental, and how female-led storytelling can shift who controls the narrative around women’s bodies.
Rebecca also shares how making the film transformed her own relationship with menstruation, why personal stories became the emotional centre of the documentary, and what drew her toward a new menopause-focused project exploring the misinformation, joy, and cultural blind spots surrounding midlife.
1. Pandora’s Box suggests that once something is opened, it can’t be resealed. What were you hoping to unseal with your film?
We were hoping to fling open the lid which has been weighed down for centuries by the taboos and stigma around menstruation. We wanted to inspire, educate and infuriate people at the same time.
I love the title of the film because in the myth the one thing that doesn’t escape the box with all the terrible human vices is hope. And that’s what I want people to come away with after seeing this film. Hope that change is possible.
A cultural shift is underway, and every one of us can and must play a part in that.
2. The Pandora myth casts female curiosity as dangerous. Do you think women’s curiosity about their own bodies is still treated as destabilizing?
Men have controlled the narrative on women’s bodies for millennia. What a threat we must be with our powerful reproductive systems! Yes, we are curious about our bodies because despite the huge leaps in science and learning, there is still relatively little research on female bodies compared to male bodies. It boggles my mind that it’s taken this long for all of us to acknowledge that out loud and talk about doing something about it.
3. Was there a moment during production when you realized the subject was larger than the film itself?
The edit for this film was one of the most challenging edits I’ve ever been in. We had so much material, so many incredible stories, and there were so many directions we could have taken the film. It’s always such a tough job trying to distill a vast subject like this down into a concise and compelling film and inevitably, you have to lose some fantastic material.
I wish we’d had more time to explore topics like the environmental impacts of reusable menstrual products, but ultimately I chose to stay with some of the key characters and spend more time with them.
I think often the most powerful messages come from seeing and understanding personal stories.
4. Did you encounter resistance, whether institutional or cultural, while bringing this story forward?
We were lucky to have the film fully financed by Diva Cares (the impact arm of DivaCup), so we didn’t struggle to get it made. It pains me to say it but I don’t think we could have gotten a film funded about menstrual inequity if it wasn’t for them. I’m certainly struggling to find funding for the menopause film that I’m hoping to make next. We are seeing a little more conversation around menopause, for example a recent essay by Melinda French Gates in the New York Times, but I’d love to see more public discussion around this, and documentary can be a powerful driver of that.
5. Women’s health narratives are often either sensationalized or minimized. How did you avoid both traps?
By approaching the issue through the personal stories and voices of a variety of women and one trans man.
6. Who benefits from women not fully understanding the transitions of their own bodies?
No one! That should be the answer…. but the real answer is that men continue to benefit from women not fully understanding the transitions of their own bodies. This is more obvious in certain parts of the world, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t everywhere.
7. Do you see silence around women’s biological transitions as accidental or structural?
100% structural. In the film we explore some of the stigmas and taboos around menstruation. None of those evolved accidentally.
8. Did making Pandora’s Box shift how you view authorship and control over female stories?
We shot the film with an entirely female crew. That was important, it created a safe and supported space for a lot of the women and girls in the film to talk openly and feel heard. My editor was also female. It definitely felt necessary on this film.
9. Has working on these projects changed your own relationship to cycles and life phases?
Pandora’s Box opened my eyes to the injustices of menstrual inequity. It ignited the feminist in me that had been a little quiet until then. I was also in my late 30s so coming into my own power as a woman. In terms of my relationship to my cycle - I made the life-changing switch from disposable products to a menstrual cup and period underwear. I can’t believe I didn’t do that sooner, but honestly I hadn’t even heard of menstrual cups in my teens and early twenties. I’ve been very vocal with my kids. My nine year old son is sick of hearing me talk about my menstrual cycle and menstrual cup, but I’ve normalized it all for him. That reminds me, I haven’t shown him the film yet. Putting that on the to-do list!
10. Tell us a bit about the new menopause project you are developing. What drew you from Pandora’s Box into developing a menopause-centered project? Does it feel like a continuation or an escalation?
This project was brought to me by some producers because of the success of Pandora’s Box. I can’t say much about it (we are still in development) but given I am now in my mid-40s, and in full perimenopause, I jumped at the chance to join the amazing female-led production team. The big challenge is getting the film financed and made. If you know of anyone who wants to see an insightful, relatable and funny doc led by two menopause-mega stars let me know!
11. Menopause is culturally framed as decline. What story are you interested in telling instead?
The misinformation around menopause. How little we really know about menopause, and why that is (spoiler alert - it’s the Patriarchy). The joy of menopause. Told through women who are curious, female experts in the field, and women who aren’t afraid to have some fun with the topic.
12. If adolescence is romanticized as transformation, why isn’t menopause granted the same narrative dignity?
Yeah that drives me crazy. There is a great monologue delivered by Kristin Scott Thomas in the TV series Fleabag where she calls menopause ‘magnificent’ which I think is a wonderful way to describe it.
I know countless women who have flourished on the other side of menopause. It seems quite magical. We should be romanticising it!
In Conversation With
Rebecca Snow is an award-winning writer, director and producer. She has directed three feature-length documentaries and over 15 hours of broadcast television. Rebecca won a Canadian Screen Award for documentary directing and, in 2024, was named Best Canadian Director at the Oakville Film and Arts Festival for her debut narrative feature, The Boy In The Woods.
Rebecca's reflections on menstrual stigma, storytelling, and the power of opening difficult conversations are part of a broader series of conversations exploring the people reshaping women's health and wellbeing:
In conversation with Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings: “Rageism”, Policy as Medicine and Reclaiming Bodily Intelligence
In conversation with Liza Donnelly: Drawing Power, Humor, and Women’s Lives Into View
In conversation with Abigail Wilson: Overdrive, a Short Film on PMDD