Beyond Conception

Beyond Conception: Men Having Babies is an intimate portrait of a gay male couple, an egg donor, and a surrogate who find themselves on a high-tech journey to build a modern family. Over two bumpy years of disappointments and triumphs, they discover the complexities of creating life using unconventional means. The drama intensifies when the surrogate’s lesbian partner struggles to become pregnant herself. How much do genetics really matter? Is surrogacy more than a womb for rent? And what’s best for the children themselves?

Honors:

  • World Premiere, Florida Film Festival
  • Best Feature Documentary Nominee, Frameline International LGBTQ Film Festival, San Francisco
  • Official Selection, Outfest LGBT Film Festival, Los Angeles
A must-see… full of suspense and surprises… a riveting document of the seismic shift in family planning happening right here in our own backyard.

—K.M. Soehnlein, Frameline Film Festival

The fascinating process of insemination… is consistently framed inside the human drama… Editor Terry Schwartz pulls the various strands together with discipline.

Variety

Intelligent and riveting… Takes an objective, open-minded and unflinching look at fertility, gay rights… and the complexities and realities of the ever-evolving definition of family.

—Jennifer Modenessi, Contra Costa Times