Directed by Erika Cohn, Belly of the Beast chronicles the near-decade-long fight to shed light on the forced sterilization of women’s prison inmates in California. The film highlights this reproductive injustice with personal accounts from formerly incarcerated individuals.
The early lyric, “The world can decide if a caged bird flies,” is a reference to Maya Angelou’s seminal autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, in which the poet describes the racism and trauma that have impacted her life.
The song culminates with Blige singing the line, “It ain’t over till it’s over,” accompanied by images of protestors, Dillon and her legal team in a courtroom, with shackles falling to the ground.
The song takes the perspective of the survivors of this underreported injustice and challenges the people in charge of the forced sterilizations to confront their actions and “see what [they’ve] done.”
