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Two large families, two distant worlds, two women who break tradition. Thereby hangs a tale.

Beth Osnes is the youngest of 10 children in an American Catholic family. She long assumed that she, too, would have many children. Ultimately, Osnes had two children and adopted a third.

Zinet Mohammed is the oldest of 10 children in a desperately poor family in Ethiopia. Zinet also faced the expectation鈥攑lus intense social pressure鈥攖o marry young and procreate often.

Zinet refused. She would not marry a wealthy man who sought her hand. She would not have her first baby at 14.

鈥淪he said, 鈥楴o, I will not participate in this cycle of keeping women down,鈥� observes Osnes, a University of Colorado assistant professor of theater and dance.

The contrasting lives and comparable choices of Osnes and Zinet are threads woven into a human tapestry in a new film, 鈥淢other: Caring Our Way Out of the Population Dilemma,鈥� which premiered at the Boulder International Film Festival at the in February.

Being a part of the movie 鈥渞eally changed me,鈥� Osnes notes. 鈥淚f women are given ownership of their own bodies, they will have only the number of babies their bodies can handle and that they can care for.鈥� Without help, a woman cannot overcome the coercive traditions that have tried to control her reproduction, she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 too much.鈥�

And the need to resist procreation pressure has never been greater, the film contends. Population was once high on the world鈥檚 agenda, dominating the first Earth Day and the subject of best-selling books like 鈥淭he Population Bomb.鈥� Nonetheless, world population has nearly doubled since the 1960s.

Some 3 billion more of us are alive now than when John F. Kennedy was president. Our numbers now approach 7 billion and might reach 9 billion by mid-century.

Today, nearly 1 billion people suffer from chronic hunger. The Green Revolution has fed billions but is limited by rising demand and finite supply of its main ingredients鈥攐il and water.

The film is grounded in the theories of social scientist Riane Eisler, who contends that overpopulation stems from the glorified dominion of man over nature, child and woman.

To break this pattern, the film suggests, humans must trade a conquering mindset for a nurturing one; mothers are nurturers, Osnes notes. Step one is to raise the status of women worldwide through education and valuing the contributions of women.

In the case of Zinet, radio programming from the Population Media Center 鈥済ave her the strength鈥� to choose a different path, Osnes says. Zinet鈥檚 family lived in a shack with one window. Zinet鈥檚 mother had her first child at age 12.

One of Zinet鈥檚 nine siblings died of AIDS as a young woman with a three-month-old daughter. That girl is now 7 and has AIDS, and Zinet is her surrogate mother.

Zinet鈥檚 father is in his 80s, and her family is one of two he sired. His other family comprises 14 children.

Zinet went to college and is studying to be an accountant. When she learned her sister was dying of AIDS, Zinet came back home. But she鈥檚 still attending college. She also works at a family planning clinic.

Zinet鈥檚 father had long been opposed to birth control but now accepts it. In the film, he says Zinet is a hero. One of Zinet鈥檚 brothers says he wants to be like her.

鈥淭hat was the culmination of the film, the bringing together the human side of our culture and theirs,鈥� Osnes says.

The take-home message is, 鈥淲e can change the cultural practices that are not sustainable.鈥�

Besides being a faculty member, Osnes is an activist. She is a founder of a nonprofit group called Mothers Acting Up, which advocates for the world鈥檚 children.

As Osnes puts it, the way to stabilize world population鈥攁nd avoid greater human suffering brought on by more demand for scarce recourses鈥攊s to empower women to raise their status.

That is a tall order. But Osnes plays to one of her strengths, the voice she honed in the theatre. Osnes earned her master鈥檚 and doctoral degrees in theatre from CU. A Fulbright Scholar who has just finished a book on Malaysian puppet theatre, Osnes also researches the use of theatre for development and social justice.

Osnes has just completed a two-year 鈥淢OTHER tour鈥� through a partnership between Mothers Acting Up and the Philanthropiece Foundation. She took a Vocal Empowerment Workshop she developed to North American and international locations听using theatre as a tool for women to empower their own voices to act on their self-identified concerns.

After creating that workshop, Osnes started piloting how to apply this work to clean-energy development for women living in poverty.

Osnes conducts research in Panama and Guatemala using interactive theatre to encourage poor women to speak up for their needs and will go to India in March to continue this research.

鈥淚 lead women to declare their most passionate concerns with their full, embodied voice,鈥� Osnes says. Because they are not used to speaking on their own behalf, Osnes helps them rehearse using their voices to act on their concerns, including preparing them to answer criticisms they are likely to encounter.

Whether they are American attorneys or Guatemalan women living in poverty, 鈥淲omen really need this,鈥� she adds. As a theatre professor, 鈥淚 can come in and say if you don鈥檛 have a voice, it鈥檚 harder to participate.鈥�

Working to help women speak on their own behalf is a small component of larger effort to raise the status of women, Osnes notes, adding:

鈥淵ou can chart a new course in human history if we chart new roles for women.鈥�

She hopes the film will jump-start a conversation about the empowerment of women. It might. Besides showing at the Boulder International Film Festival, the documentary is also likely to appear on PBS and be shown in public schools.

The film has also drawn philanthropic support. Recently, Osnes screened the film in her home as a fund-raiser, because the filmmakers, Tiroir A Films, needed money for post-production work.

Rebecca Di Domenico, a Boulder resident and friend of Osnes, responded generously. Her own mother, who had spent years working on population issues for the Compton Foundation, had just passed away.

Di Domenico granted the film $10,000 in her mother鈥檚 memory.

Osnes鈥� own change of heart about children stemmed from her husband, who didn鈥檛 want more than two kids. While in college, he had seen a talk on population by Al Bartlett, the noted CU physics professor who has long crusaded against the population explosion.

Bartlett himself is featured in the film, which won BIFF鈥檚 Best Colorado Film Award and a standing ovation from the crowd that viewed the premiere.

Though she once thought a family with two children was 鈥渨impy,鈥� Osnes is glad of her chosen path, which has included adoption and foster parenting. 鈥淢y desire to have this huge big nest of a family is realized,鈥� though not as she initially imagined.

Her family includes a large network of friends, neighbors and others, including Zinet.

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