Little Man

The other night I caught a tear-jerker-of-a-documentary about filmmaker Nicole Conn and her partner, Political Activist Gwen Baba. It wasn't really about them, it was about their son, Nicholas. He was born a micro-premie and the film documents what they went through, from the moment he was born at twenty-six weeks to the moment he left the hospital well after gestational age.

Forget what you may or may not feel about their living arrangements, their decision to use a surrogate, their disagreement about whether or not to terminate when they found out the surrogate had health problems she didn't come clean about that caused their son to have a host of medical problems. Concentrate on the helplessness their family felt at watching their teeny baby hooked up to machines and wires. Think about how they had to sit their and wait, and wait some more, and wait even more still to even TOUCH their baby. Yes, they have scheduled "touch time" in the NICU. Look at the pained but joyous expression on Nicole's face when she got to hold him, kangaroo style, to her chest for the very first time.

I did not post this to conjure up discussions and disagreements about "alternative lifestyles" and "playing God." I posted this to give you an example of a parent who will fight for her child, who loves him unconditionally despite the almost guaranteed delays and medical issues he will face, who has never held him and barely sees him yet would give her life for him. It is difficult to watch what they do to these babies just to get them to survive. The film does stir up some issues about when it is just too much for these babies and when is it a good time to just let go?

Check out the website to Little Man. I wrote them an e-mail I was so compelled and they actually responded and thanked me for sharing my thoughts. Who does that these days?

Oh, and if you wanted to know, I caught it on Logo but it has been airing on Showtime as well. You can watch a clip and see some photos here.