Baby, It's You

Rank

Bottom 20% of all time (see others with this rank)

Festival Year

1998 (click here to see all competition films from this year)

Category

Documentary Competition

Non-Cast Credits

ITVS, Anne Makepeace, Uta Briesewitz, Jennifer Chinlund, Simon Kendall

Description

Filmmaker Anne Makepeace turns the camera on herself as she and her husband boldly document a tumultuous year spent in trying to conceive a child after forty. With time no longer on their side, she and her writer husband, Peter, subject themselves to a range of new technologies, including months of fertility drug injections, surgery to extract eggs, fertilization, and replacement of the fertilized eggs in Anne's uterus. As part of their story, we are introduced to their unconventional baby-boomer siblings. We travel from Utah to Appalachia to Canada to meet family members: a brother who's hoping to become a polygamist, another who lives a reclusive life on a goat farm, and a lesbian sister-in-law, who is coparenting a newborn with her partner.

Makepeace was raised in a Puritan-style New England family, where feelings were hardly eapressed, let alone sex ever being discussed. She tries to come to terms with her past and conflicting emotions through talking to aging relatives.

Baby, It's You is a striking and uncompromising portrait of family and the unique bonds between its members. Makepeace's courage to share such a deeply personal experience in front of the camera is truly moving. Based on the events that take place during the year, it is clear the film evolved organically rather than following any sort of planned scenario, which gives it added impact. Rarely do we see such an open and honest portrayal throughout the emotional roller coaster of anticipation, disappointment, and hope that carries this determined couple along.

Reviewer

Lisa Viola (see other films reviewed by the same reviewer)

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