submitted by Anne Catherine Hundhausen

Still single at thirty-six, I became more than slightly worried about my prospects to have my own children and the family I always dreamed of. After a string of monogamous relationships, I found myself breaking up with yet another serious boyfriend. That day, I cried a lot and attended the local Single Mothers By Choice (SMBC) meeting. It was surreal to be in a room full of women who had either already made this choice or were contemplating it. There was this sinking feeling of, "is this really happening? Do I have to buy sperm and do it on my own to have a family?" Immediately the questions bubbled up, and "what would I tell the child?" was one of the first things on my mind.

And so my investigation began. As a filmmaker, I made the decision to document the journey with the intention of creating a film with my findings. I started a video diary, joined the SMBC discussion groups, ordered a pile of books and tried to get hold of every documentary already existing on the topic. These films were all well-done poignant accounts of different women’s journeys to becoming single mothers - the tears and the joys and the births and the disappointments. I used a lot of Kleenex and rode a roller coaster of feelings. While a few of these films touched on some of my questions, they didn’t dive deeply into the issues I was concerned about. What was missing was a look at the other more complicated side of the coin - so after I lined up my interviews with women and mothers, I picked up the phone and called the kids, the donors and the sperm banks.

The film, SINGLE CHOICE: MANY LIVES, is the culmination of my research on this complicated topic and fascinating topic. Thanks to the film participants, I have been able to weave a rich mosaic of perspectives around single motherhood and donor insemination. I hope the film will shed light on the wonderful option using donor sperm offers to single women who wish to become mothers as well as the issues around donor conception. I also hope it can help bring a greater awareness to this growing trend of alternative families.

The film is making its film festival debut June 2010 at the Hoboken International Film Fest, after which I hope to have it screened at other festivals and release it for distribution on DVD. I am thrilled that it was featured in an April 2010 article in Newsweek online and even received a mention in a recent New York Times article. The topic is timely and it seems to be finally receiving the mainstream attention it deserves, as evidenced by the recent trend of Hollywood films on the subject. I hope SINGLE CHOICE can serve to provide some grounding in the realities of this lifestyle to balance these Hollywood versions and also to offer a tool to educate and spread awareness on the topic.

Special note from Mikki: I am currently in the process of trying to line up a screening of this documentary after the Choice Mom networking event in New York City on July 11.