An award-winning investigative documentary film about power morcellation—a once-popular “minimally invasive” surgical procedure—is now available on major streaming platforms.
Kicking the Hornet’s Nest, the film, weaves first-person testimonies and archival footage as it follows a physician couple, Amy Reed and Hooman Noorchashm, through their campaign against the medical establishment to expose the controversial practice and prevent needless deaths.
Reed and Noorchashm were Harvard-affiliated physicians whose lives were upended when Reed’s routine hysterectomy procedure results in an unexpected diagnosis of an aggressive uterine cancer, which was disseminated by the procedure.
Reed died from complications related to sarcomatosis on May 24, 2017, three years and seven months after she underwent morcellation (The Cancer Letter, May 26, 2017).
Reed was by no means the first woman to be harmed. As FDA issued new guidances to reflect the actual prevalence of undetected cancer in uterine fibroids, hundreds of women and their families came forward claiming harm.
“The Cancer Letter’s coverage, spearheaded by Matt Ong—who was interviewed for the film—was absolutely integral to my process, because I only started to cover the subject in the summer of 2015, over a year after the controversy had really kicked off,” Kyle Floyd, the independent documentary filmmaker, who directed and produced the film, said to The Cancer Letter.
“The incredibly detailed, investigative articles that had chronicled the morcellation issue to that point provided me with a terrific jumping off point for my research of the story and its angles, as well as a very high bar of investigative storytelling to aim for as a young filmmaker.”
Ong’s six-year series on minimally invasive surgery has triggered congressional investigations and federal action, and contributed to an evolution in the way gynecologists and gynecologic oncologists approach minimally invasive surgery and surgical innovation.
His work on these topics has won more than 10 awards and has been recognized by six journalism organizations (How Medical Devices Do Harm, 2014-2017; When Surgical Innovation Kills, 2018-2019).
Floyd’s film was an official selection at the Awareness Film Festival, The Spotlight Documentary Film Awards (where it won the Silver Award), and The Impact Docs Awards (where it won the Award of Merit).
“I think if there was anything that drove me as I was making this film it was the need to have the issue of power morcellation and its victims immortalized in some way, so that people would not forget the women who were lost or the steps that resulted in such significant harm,” Floyd said.
“The cancer survivor and support community was always in the back of my mind, because I knew they would be waiting for this and would expect it to do justice to the stories of many, many people.
“The experience of making this film has certainly given me a greater level of appreciation for the power of investigative journalism both in print and in film,” Floyd said.
“I’ve come out the other side seeing the purpose for this kind of reporting and storytelling, not necessarily as a means to direct blame when things go wrong, but to engage in a genuine process of constructive criticism, both of people and institutions.
“Making a film like this is like shining a light for people on the outside of the problem, but it’s also like holding up a mirror for those on the inside, and that’s just as important if there’s going to be any real change.”
Kicking the Hornet’s Nest is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Fandango Now, Vimeo on Demand, and Google Play.
