Review: Fatherhood Dreams - A documentary film about gay fathers and their children

Review by Brian Frank

Fatherhood Dreams a film by Julia Ivanova

Fatherhood Dreams is a documentary about gay men taking three different paths to fatherhood: adoption, co-parenting, and surrogacy. Randy and Drew are married partners who adopt baby Jack, Stephen is co-parenting his two daughters with his ex-wife and her lesbian partner, and Scott becomes the father of twins through surrogacy. The focus of the film extends beyond these men to also include Jack's birth family, Stephen's co-parents, and the surrogate mother working with Scott. Fatherhood Dreams was directed and produced in Canada, and one interesting aspect of the film is the contrast between the situation for gay fathers in Canada and America, proving that the political really is personal. Paradoxically, while Canada is ahead of the U.S. in the matter of gay marriage, the barriers to gay parenting there are much higher. A large part of Scott's story, for example, deals with the quasi-legal nature of surrogacy in Canada.

Read the rest of our review and watch a trailer at Green Dads Blog