To Our Audience -
Bump+ The Show has come to an end – but the conversation it has sparked is just beginning.
When we launched this experiment, the only thing we knew for sure was that the time for a new kind of conversation about the sensitive topic of abortion had come. We hoped that story could succeed where nearly four decades of angry rhetoric had failed. But our success depended completely on you.
As word about Bump+ spread to 64 countries across the globe, controversy and criticism from people on both sides of the debate followed; but instead of listening to them, you found the courage to listen to each other. Six weeks and more than 125,000 site visits later, your responses not only to our characters, but also to each other has proved to the world what we suspected all along – we were right to trust in the goodness and intelligence of our audience. We are intensely humbled by the stories you’ve shared and the respect you have shown to each other. Your partnership has challenged us to see this debate in new ways, and reminded the world that we don’t have to agree to listen and respond with compassion. Thank you for that gift.
You can add final thoughts to the current Bump+ comment threads through Wednesday, March 17th; but the episodes will remain online and this new comment thread will remain open indefinitely to allow the conversation to continue. We hope you will continue it elsewhere as well – and that you will commit to keep reaching out to each other to find workable solutions to help the real women and men who face this situation every day. It’s not an easy task; but you have proved to us that if anyone can do it, you can.
On behalf of everyone at Yellow Line Studio – thank you.
The Bump+ Producers
I came across this show by chance and watched every episode this evening. I found it so refreshing and heart wrenching at times watching each character deal with the choices at hand. I can honestly say there is a part of me that identifies with each character.
Thank you so much to the producers of Bump+ for having the tenacity to actually create this and put it out in the world for others to openly comment on.
This is why I believe our country is so beautiful! We can all gather here with so many different opinions, because we all know this topic is not black or white, express ourselves and learn and grow together.
What a wonderful thing to find! I’m glad the conversation is ongoing. Women need a place like this to meet and converse.
I am really sad to hear that katie felt the need to terminate her pregnancy. I understand that her husband supported her in her decision, I just feel that she would have been much happier to have a little one around..especially because of her trouble conceiving before.
I am really sad to hear that katie felt the need to terminate her pregnancy. I understand that her husband supported her in her decision, I just feel that she would have been much happier to have a little one around..especially because of her trouble conceiving before.
i was a little confused on who ended up hving the abortion in the end. Can anyone clarify?
Katie decided to terminate her pregnancy, Hailey decided to carry to term and keep and raise her baby, and Denise had decided to carry to term, but she miscarried. I hope that helps explain things.
Actually, it seems that Katie’s decision can go either way. Personally, I believe she kept it, and probably put it up for adoption. In the final episode, she and Jon speak of starting with a clean slate. To me this suggests moving forward, not abortion. They know it will be tough for a while, but Jon already said he’s willing to give it a chance. In my opinion, Katie did not terminate.
After hearing about this project from the start, I was pretty on guard when watching – assuming Bump+’s producers would soon enough tip their hand and show what side of the debate they were really promoting. I found myself becoming literally addicted to watching the show, partly because it was great acting, partly because the stories were very real to me, and also partly because I wanted to see eventually what side this experiement would take. Bump+ prooved me wrong.
As a prolife activist at the college level, I worked tiredlessly to make an experiement like this happen. I did things like host a school-wide debate between a national prolife group leader and an abortion clinic director, host movie nights with discussion after, display and hand out abortion-related infomation in the student building, bring in speakers, etc etc. At the end of the day, many of these events resulted with both sides in heated arguments about where they stand.
I was so impressed with the way that this project panned out; the civil discussion it generated, and the thought provoking messages it portrayed. I can only hope now that those of us who participated (and maybe not contributed until now – like myself) can turn our words in to actions. I hope that both sides can meet somewhere in the middle to at least help women facing crisis pregnancies feel supported and loved.
Thank you Bump.
PS – I would also just like to offer a “shout out” to Sister Mary Agnes. As a resident of your home state, I am very familiar with (and have even visited) St Charles Childrens’ Home. Thank you for all the selfless work that you have committed your life to doing to help children and families in need! We all could learn a lot from you and what it means to truely walk-the-walk in helping others!
Lauren,
I was a PC campus activist and I, too, tried to get real dialogue going on campus. I think the closest we ever got was when we showed the Frontline documentary “The Last Abortion Clinic” from PBS. You can go on their website and view it. It’s about as unbiased as it gets and I highly recommend it. The discussion after the film was promising, but it didn’t create the wave I had hoped.
I totally agree that most PLers/PCers have a common ground and that’s caring about women, wanting to help them in these situations and preventing this types of situations from occurring. Much could be accomplished if we kept this in mind.
Chris
Dear Lauren, wow, what a small world! You’ve been to St. Charles? That is really cool! Thanks for the “shout out!”
I resonate with your thoughts about the Bump experiment. I also think the success of what Bump tried to accomplish is pretty profound.
Hi Sister Mary Agnes,
Yes I visited St Charles’ last summer. I went with my friend Jeff who is a seminarian that volunteers there often, I am sure you know him
I am following you on Twitter now, so feel free to say hi!
I’m feeling a bit lost now that I have no new Bump+ episodes to watch. Funny, because I wasn’t that impressed with the show at the beginning. But like lizaanne said, it just got better and better every week (I’m paraphrasing). Look at that, I’m agreeing with someone who is pro-life. There’s the magic of this platform at work again.
So when does Season 2 start?
I noticed through out the show there were a number of comments that said basically “I’m skeptical about this show, but will withhold judgment until I see how it ends”. I wonder what those people think now, and how the ending has affect their view of the project as a whole. Would they only be happy if the end showed either a pro-choice or pro-life message (which ever agrees with them), and that’s what would ease their skepticism? Or conversely, were they just waiting to be sure that it would remain neutral till the end before deciding about it? I’m really not saying that it’s wrong to hold either of those views, I just wonder what they were intending by the “wait and see” comments. I also wonder what they thought of the process itself, which, to me, seems to be the real point- not how the stories ended, but how the conversation unfolded. In a very results oriented, destination driven culture, can the journey be the point in and of itself? Just a few things I was wondering.
Ok, I’ll take the bait CCG. Thanks for engaging! I mean if this conversation has any hope of continuing beyond the show and without the women themselves to refer to in our conversations, we must be willing to do more than just say our peace and exit. We must desire to engage…..like you have demonstrated here in your post.
You have asked some great questions to get us started here, and I hope more will pipe in on the subject. I was skeptical, but only at first, and what made me stay, despite my skepticism, was the hope that this experiment would work.
Honestly, I think my skepticism came from the confusion on the “voting” aspect of the show. I didn’t know what to expect, and was a bit concerned that this was some attempt to see if society had reached the point of degradation comparable to that of the Roman civilization, where people took part in voting up or down for people to die or not in the Colosseum. Once the producers adequately responded to those concerns I was relieved, to say the least.
Beyond that, I remained hopeful that we could, through our conversations truly find workable solutions to unintended pregnancies. I don’t know that we found many in the course of the dialogue that has thus far ensued. I believe what transpired is a good start and if we can continue, maybe just maybe we will?
You asked, “can the journey be the point in and of itself?” I guess I somewhat answered that in the paragraph above when I admitted that I, like the producers, hoped that we could make our conversations productive. But I also recognize that we as a society, in general, have all but ceased to reason together on these difficult issues, for fear of offending one another. Political Correctness has been a tool used to create disingenuous and shallow relationships among our fellow sojourners. I, for one, have been starving for real, meaningful conversation on those tough issues we inevitably encounter along our journey. I suspect there are others who are starving as well, and until we can enter in to this possibility… where people can really share in a safe environment which elicits true understanding, I guess it’s premature to expect solutions. People just want to be heard and understood, and loved, if you will, and until that can begin to take root again, we probably won’t move forward much.
You wanted to know how the ending affected my view of the project as a whole. I think the project as a whole was very well done, ESPECIALLY the ending! It left more questions than it answered and we might do well to examine and explore each unanswered question in our future discussions. I think that was the intention of the skillful writers and directors. The series left us with much to discuss. The question now is, can we? Can we continue without the ambiguity of standing behind the characters themselves? Can we begin to feel safe using our own stories as the platforms of discussion? That’s asking for true vulnerability and trust in humankind isn’t it? Are we there yet? I hope so….. but, we’ll have to see.
Ambiguity was not what I mean to say there, anonymity is a better word to describe what I meant. Opps! That’s what I get for not proof reading my posts prior to submitting them. Sorry
As one of the “wait and see” posters, I ended up being mildly disappointed with how the series ended. At the end of the day, I don’t think this format was a good way to advance the argument on anything but the most emotional level. And appeal to emotion is a logical fallacy.
We have been told repeatedly that the point of Bump+ was to foster compassionate understanding and to forge new ways to approach this debate. But I say again, as I have said over and over: To what end? So that we can all be kind and respectful to each other as nothing changes and thousands of unborn children continue to be aborted each day?
I found myself in a weird role while watching Bump+. On the one hand, I was highly critical of it here on the boards. Meanwhile, on other boards and in the real world, I found myself defending it from other pro-lifers who wanted nothing to do with it. I urged them to give it a chance and I’m not unhappy that I did.
But now that all is said and done, I think Bump+ was a clever idea that fell mostly flat. I think the viewership numbers bear that out–at least on YouTube. They seemed to spike early on and then peter out as the series went on which indicates an audience losing interest.
I happily recognize the talent and creative energy that went into Bump+. I hope in the future we will see that talent being channeled into projects that can have a more immediate, positive, and wide-ranging impact on our dysfunctional culture.
If you really want to advance an argument, you need to take a bold stance. The middle-of-the-road approach neither inspires nor motivates.
I hope this show opens up a new type of dialogue: Not one of compromise or conversion but one of understanding and charity: Without this new type of dialogue, which is not new in the sense of modernity but new in the sense of application to abortion, there can be no moving forward about abortion, whether it’s for those who support abortion, those who oppose abortion, those who are unsure or undecided, those who weave between support and opposition, or those who have never heard of abortion.
Understanding being, not tolerance or sympathy, but open ears, eyes, and hearts, neither shut to one’s conscience nor to the opinions and problems of others nor to the facts and reality which they present.
Charity being, not alms or monies, but patience, hope, self-control, kindness, generosity, compassion, trustworthiness, and respect.
I notice at the top of the site it says “Season One” – can we assume there will be other projects? What do you have planned for the future?
This was indeed interesting, and you know I was a skeptic. I’m still not happy with the outcome of the one aborted baby, but I get it that you can’t please everyone lest you be labeled biased.
As for the production value, I was most impressed. From that perspective I can say that it was very well done, the actors were more and more believable every week, and the stories were good and true to life without being too bogged down in detail. Necessary for 4-5 minute segments.
Hi LizAnne,
Just like in real life, people aren’t always going to make decisions we agree with. This experiment was about understanding the situations, the emotions, the friends, the families and the WOMEN behind these situations and to open up dialogue for us all. I think the creators have succeeded in this.