The film “Lady Parts,” which premiered at the Michigan Theater during the Cinetopia Film Festival, is based on the real-life journey of a woman navigating vulvar pain. Told through a lens of wit and warmth, the story dives into themes of medical treatment, personal healing, and family support — with surprising doses of comedy.
Director Nancy Boyd, who was born in Ann Arbor, connects the film’s themes with a personal and artistic connection, shaping them with thoughtful visual choices and lived experience.
Boyd’s Ann Arbor roots
Boyd fondly recalled her mother’s dramatic drive into Ann Arbor — while in labor with her.
“She (her mother) told me that I was ready to get in the world right quick,” Boyd said. “…My Dad was driving my Mom and they almost didn’t make it into the hospital…she’s actively going into labor, going through a lot, and they were going down this stretch of road in Ann Arbor, that at the time was all cobblestone…it being bumpy. but they did make it to the hospital.”
Later, Ann Arbor became a creative playground for Boyd when she got her first camera.
“When I got my first camera, it was a bunch of our friends that we wanted to be really artsy and cool, and so we would go to Ann Arbor, because then I lived in Milford,” Boyd said. “And so we would go to Ann Arbor, and we would go into the graffiti alley. And we would take a bunch of headshots and things like that, testing out the camera for the first time, and going around town, there are a lot of murals and things like that. So that was a really fun backdrop to start working on, you know, visual art together.”
From shared pain to shared vision
The way Boyd came to direct “Lady Parts” is as serendipitous as it is personal. Her best friend since kindergarten, Meghan Griesbeck — who also produced the film — connected Boyd with writer and producer Bonnie Gross, whose real-life experiences inspired the script. As it turned out, Boyd and Gross shared the same medical condition, vaginismus.
“She knew that I had trouble putting in tampons and things like that and I had just recently gotten the courage to go to the gynecologist, when I was like 23,” Boyd said. “And so I got the diagnosis of vaginismus, and I told Megan about it. And so then when Bonnie was telling her about this story, she was like, well, my best friend is a director. She is going to USC right now. I think that you guys could really hit it off, and she was a connection to the story.”
Centering emotions
Boyd intentionally framed the female body in a light different from that of traditional Hollywood. Instead of the typical objectification, her approach centered the character’s emotions and agency.
“So our cinematographer Olaa Olabii and I came up with some rules for the visuals of the movie,” Boyd said. “And one of the rules that we came up with was we didn’t want to have nudes the center of attention when anything sexual was happening. We wanted it all to be about her face. We actually don’t even see the man during intercourse at all. We only see her face because it’s so many times in media all about the men’s pleasure and this time we wanted to be about her pleasure and experience…And the other rule we had is we wanted to show the most amount of nudity when things were very medical. We wanted to show the least amount of nudity when things were sexual. To show that the human body, the female body, isn’t inherently sexual. It’s our body. It’s what we live in and it doesn’t need to be shown for the pleasure of the male gaze.”
Behind the screenplay
Bonnie Gross wears multiple hats on the film — writer, executive producer and social media manager. But the most powerful thing she brings is her voice, one that has gone unheard for too long. She also self-financed the film and it was miraculously made for under half a million dollars.
“The story began when I was 13 years old and felt too embarrassed to tell anyone that tampon insertion was painful,” Gross said. “I thought it was normal to feel pain and just smiled and kept pushing forward. I spent years with chronic vulvar pain that was constantly dismissed by doctors. Anything touching my vestibule, the opening of the vagina, felt like a hot knife digging in. The condition was not just about sex, it was affecting every waking minute of my life, and it took a high toll on my relationships and my mental health, but most of all because it felt like no one believed me or took my pain seriously. Not to mention the stigma that surrounds this part of the body.”
The film portrays her journey, the emotional toll and her ultimate healing — both medical and emotional.
“I wrote a blog post about the surgery and ended up receiving over six hundred views and an overwhelming response from other women out there, who were experiencing similar issues,” Gross said. “I made it my mission to start putting out content about these ‘taboo’ topics in hopes that we could normalize them and start conversations. I knew I would do whatever it took to get content out about vulvo-vaginal and pelvic pain conditions because visibility is important. It was the film I wished I could watch while recovering from my vestibulectomy.”
Storytelling with laughter and impact
One of “Lady Parts’” greatest achievements is its tone: balancing medical seriousness with comedy, compassion and hope.
“The beauty of stories like this one, is that it takes a huge real world problem and makes it digestible to the public,” Gross said. “It is able to capture the audience in a story instead of spewing medical facts and sending us down a swirl of depressing statistics. It instead humanizes our characters who are experiencing chronic vulvo-vaginal and pelvic pain in a way everyone can relate to, even those without a vagina.”
Gross also emphasizes how film can do more than entertain — it can empower and transform.
“Any story that can transcend the film itself and go on to elicit real change gives me the motivation to do this every day,” Gross said. “Plus there is nothing more cathartic than laughing at yourself and writing through your own healing journeys. Writing and working on projects like these keeps me sane in this chaotic world.”
She also had a good story about how she started working with Meghan and Nancy.
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“Meghan and I worked together at Light Iron, which was a company owned by Panavision in NYC,” Gross said. “When I first started, I told Meghan about the project and how I was gearing up to film and looking for a director. She immediately connected me with Nancy. What a coincidence. Her best friend is a director, completing her master’s at USC, and also has a ‘broken vagina.’ The rest was vagina magic history!”
Gross also added that “Lady Parts” wouldn’t be able to capture this story without its amazing leading actress, Valentina Tammaro, who was masterfully able to capture the horror and comedy of vaginal trauma.
Producing on passion and grit
Producer Meghan Griesbeck describes her job as part logistics manager, part creative partner, and part bracelet-maker.
“As a producer it took a large focus in acquiring equipment and our postproduction schedule,” Griesbeck said. “Being so micro budget, we’ve all worn a lot of hats! Some days could be checking in on production, others could be making beaded bracelets to pass out at festivals, another could be scrambling to find a PA. The experience has been so fun, and we’ve been able to work with an incredibly passionate and talented cast and crew.”
Her creative collaboration with Boyd dates to fifth grade and continues to grow stronger. Griesbeck’s relationship with the director goes way back as well.
“She’s the other half of my creative brain,” Griesbeck said. “Nancy and I have been best friends since 5th and we’ve been creating and filmmaking since then, as well. We did our first independent feature together, in undergrad at Madonna University, and I’m sure “Lady Parts” is far from our last. We have a great creative relationship where I trust her, whole heartedly, to create and form a story. In return, she trusts me to wrangle her creative chaos often in the form of a highly detailed schedule and color coded — the more feminine the better! — calendar. We have a really good, shared understanding of what we are capable of, we really are better together.”
The premiere was a full-circle moment — packed with family, friends, and even former teachers — and it marked opening night of the festival.
Griesbeck also profoundly encapsulated the beauty and strength of the film.
“’Lady Parts’ is a film about having autonomy over your own body and life,” Griesbeck said. “I think my favorite part of watching this movie with audiences is seeing family reactions — maybe there’s initial awkwardness but it’s quickly replaced with an understanding that this is medical issue that effects people deeply. It’s nice to see people walk away with a new perspective and a lot of belly laughs!”
The writer also had an important concluding comment to make about the entire process.
“Lastly I’d love to shout out our female-majority department heads that truly gave so much to this project if possible — cinematographer, Olaa Olabi, editor, Edith Belmont, composer, Hollie Buhagiar, colorist, Katie Jordan, costume designer, Jess Campbell and intimacy coordinator Allison Bibicoff.”
Lady Parts will be screening in LA on June 21.
Donna Marie Iadipaolo is a writer, journalist, and State of Michigan certified teacher, since 1990. She has written for national publications like The Village Voice, Ear Magazine of New Music, Insurance & Technology, and TheStreet.
She is now writing locally for many publications, including Current Magazine, Ann Arbor Family, and the Ann Arbor Independent. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she graduated with an honors bachelor’s degree and three teacher certificate majors: mathematics, social sciences, English. She also earned three graduate degrees in Master of Science, Master of Arts, and Education Specialist Degree.
