Francine Strickwerda began her career as a reporter for daily and weekly newspapers in Washington and Idaho. She took her award-winning journalism skills into the emerging field of multimedia, and finally into television. She was a producer on national and local PBS programs including "Affluenza" and "Escape from Affluenza," as well as national PBS Web sites. Francine is a graduate of Washington State University's Murrow School of Communication.

Laurel Spellman Smith is a two-time regional Emmy Award-winning producer of national and local programs for PBS including the critically acclaimed feature documentary "Faith and Fear: The Children of Krishna" and "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." She graduated from Evergreen State College with a degree in cultural anthropology and film. She is an avid traveler and often incorporates footage from around the world in her documentaries. Look for scenes from New Guinea, Yap, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania in Busting Out.

The Making of Busting Out: Director's Statement

By Francine Strickwerda

The man's hands flew into the air to cup giant imaginary breasts.

"I have a friend who loves big breasts," he said with enthusiasm. "But I prefer small ones."

The man was a television executive, and we were meeting to discuss the idea of doing my film Busting Out as a co-production. But it was difficult to get him to talk about the project because he was using the meeting to tell me what he liked about breasts.

This kind of "sharing" happened all the time in meetings where I was trying to find project support, and also just about every time I told someone new about the film. People really want to talk about breasts. Talking about them is a still a bit taboo, but I was opening a door for people to reveal all kinds of intimate stories and personal information. I found it humorous, charming, and sometimes uncomfortable.

It's ironic, since it was a lifetime of discomfort that led me to make Busting Out. Growing up in my family, there were two things we didn't talk about - breasts and death.

My mother died from breast cancer when I seven years old. It was the '70s, a time when "breast" was a dirty word and breast cancer was a closeted disease. My father couldn't talk about my mother's death, so we just lived with our grief. Not being able to talk about my mother was tremendously hard. And it didn't help a few years later when I was the first girl in my class to wear a bra and my schoolmates found my breasts laughably large. In my mind, the Boobs of Doom were out to get me.

I grew up, but I never really stopped feeling vulnerable about having breasts. I was working as a field producer at Seattle's PBS affiliate when I got the idea to do a documentary that explores the history and politics of breast attitudes in our culture. I knew that breastfeeding rates in the U.S. were low and adversely affecting the health of both women and babies. Breast cancer rates were increasing, and despite safety concerns, more women than ever were getting breast implants. At the same time, I saw that corporations were making a great deal of money from our attitudes about breasts, and that the price of living in a culture that values breasts as sex objects above all else was probably a lot higher than most people wanted to admit.

Co-director Laurel Spellman Smith came onto the project, and we began working on the film. It took us more than five years to make Busting Out, and it was particularly difficult to find funding support. The subject - and the way we wanted to handle it - seemed to make traditional funders uncomfortable. I saw it in body language when I met with funders in person, and in the polite and frequent letters of rejection.

When efforts to find foundation support failed we turned to fundraising parties. We put on a comedy night fundraiser where comedians donated their time and told breast-related jokes under a giant bra. Local artists donated art and sold it to support the project. At another we served breast-shaped cookies and A and D cup martinis. There were dinner parties as well, and all this got the ball rolling. There was an amazing show of support from friends and family.

It's my hope that Busting Out will challenge women and men to question cultural attitudes about breasts and who profits from them. I want to influence the nation's public policy makers to better address women's health issues. Most importantly, I hope Busting Out will help women and girls feel more comfortable in their bodies.