Completed · One Hour Documentary

Fatherhood Dreams

Building families beyond the traditional script.

Poster for Fatherhood Dreams

Synopsis

Randy and Drew are a young married gay couple who have adopted baby Jack at birth. When the two men were looking for ways to start their family, they settled on adoption and were contacted by Tracy, a 36 year-old grandmother of four. She was looking for an adoption placement for Jack, the infant son of her teenaged daughter, Corrie. Randy and Drew have an open adoption, so they keep in contact with Tracy and Jack's birthfather, the teenager Murray, but Corrie has kept her distance. Randy and Drew may both be men, but they provide a loving, stable environment for little Jack to thrive in. While playing with Randy, we see Jack utter his first word: Daddy.

Stephen works in downtown Vancouver as a patent lawyer during the week. On Saturday morning, he takes the ferry to Protection Island where a lesbian couple, Wendy and Coreen raise his two daughters, Kazea and Jazz, in a co-parenting agreement. Coreen is the only woman on Kazea's birth certificate, and Wendy is the only woman on Jazz's. If something were to happen to Stephen and one of the mothers, the other mother would have no parental rights regarding the child that isn't her biological daughter. All three parents wish to be officially recognized as the parents of both of their children.

Scott's dream for years was to become a father. After visiting an adoption agency, he learns that parenthood through adoption for a single gay man is out of the question. He then pursues surrogacy and finds his surrogate mother. The next hurdle is finding a clinic willing to inseminate her because they are not a traditional, heterosexual couple. Eventually a clinic agrees and Scott prepares his home and his life for fatherhood. He discovers that his surrogate is having twins, a boy and a girl. She goes into labour early so Scott misses their birth. We see him arrive at the hospital and witness him meeting his infant son and daughter for the very first time.

Credits

Director
Julia Ivanova

Partners

  • Produced by Interfilm Productions Inc. in association with Global and Knowledge

Also completed