NRL News
Page 4
July/August 2009
Volume 36
Issue 7-8

New DVD Shows Unborn Child’s “Infinite Possibilities”
By Dave Andrusko

A Baby’s First Months: Infinite Possibilities is a spectacularly breathtaking new DVD available from the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund. While there have been many attempts over the years to convey the beauty of the unborn child’s development, A Baby’s First Months has immediately jumped to the front of the line.

Pam Rucinski not only wrote the script for the six-minute DVD, she also produced and directed. A partner in Rucinski & Reetz Communication, LLC, Pam is a veteran pro-lifer who has devoted her considerable professional skills to creating the kind of DVD that can be shown in any venue, from crisis pregnancy centers to public schools.

A Baby’s First Months: Infinite Possibilities operates on many levels. First and foremost, because it is stunningly beautiful, the audience is immediately caught up. From the very first few minutes, the DVD establishes the parallel between the universe “out there” and the universe “within.”

Subtly—the word “abortion” is never used—the viewer sees that from the moment of conception, the woman “is not alone.” The only difference is that although she may not know she is pregnant for several weeks, nor feel her baby move until the second trimester, the marvelous engine of fetal development is busy chugging away.

Basic facts of fetology are woven into the narrative, as the camera cuts back and forth between incredible embryoscopic photos and the child’s mother, who often times is shown gracefully exercising. Pregnancy is understood for what it is: a natural part of life that involves a child growing safely tucked within her mother.

Indeed, part of the genius of A Baby’s First Months: Infinite Possibilities is the manner in which it enmeshes the child within the web of her social connections. The unborn child ponders whether she will have her dad’s large feet; or whether she will be pretty like her mom; or whether she will be a ballerina. The DVD’s last shot is of the moon, with the child concluding, “Maybe I’ll be an astronaut someday.”

Without even realizing it, the viewer is receiving an education in fetology. And what an array of facts they are—heartbeats per minutes, blood cells produced per day, and the billions of brain cells. We see close ups of the developing child, and it is impossible not to recognize the continuity of life from conception through birth up until natural death

No wonder the narrator can liken the universe within to the universe we look up at each night.

Rucinski emphasized the importance of how all three major components require the same high quality—video, audio, and editing—for the DVD to succeed. And they clearly are.

A professional shooter/editor used his talents on the fetal development photos for the NRL Educational Trust Fund. Rucinski also hired a national voice talent to be the narrator.

“I filled a waste basket with script ideas before it dawned on me that I was trying to say too much,” said Rucinski. “The next script took the form of a dance elegantly performed by mother and unborn child. I wanted viewers to lose themselves in the breathtaking moments of their first days of life.”