The Surrogate
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“I Wanted to Explode the Will and Grace Stereotype about Idealized and Infantilized Gay Men and Women”: Writer/Director Jeremy Hersh Interviewed by Jeremy O. Harris About Hersh’s Powerful and Nuanced Drama, The Surrogate
Now streaming on STARZ and with a Gotham Awards nomination for its lead, Jasmine Batchelor, The Surrogate, Jeremy Hersh’s powerful and probing drama, begins with what might seem a familiar sort of indie film setup: a young, twentysomething Columbia grad, Jess (Batchelor) agrees to be the surrogate mother to the baby of her best friend Josh (Chris Perfetti) and his husband Aaron (Sullivan Jones). But very quickly writer/director Hersh establishes that The Surrogate will not be a bantery relationship comedy: a prenatal test reveals that the child will be born with Down syndrome, a development that destabilizes the progressive male […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 4, 2021 -
“BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD” TOPS SUNDANCE AWARD WINNERS
With Sundance wrapping up tomorrow, this year’s award winners were announced at a ceremony tonight in Park City. Perhaps unsurprising considering the amount of critical acclaim it’s been garnering this past week, Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild took home the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize. Meanwhile, Eugene Jarecki’s War on Drugs critique The House I Live In won this year’s Documentary Grand Jury Prize, and Mark O’Brien’s crowd-pleasing drama The Surrogate took home the Dramatic Audience Award. The full list of winners: Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic: Beasts of the Southern Wild Grand Jury Prize, Documentary: The House I Live […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 29, 2012 -
Five Questions with The Surrogate Director Ben Lewin
Strictly speaking figures, The Surrogate has been the big Sundance winner thus far. Scooped up by Fox Searchlight for a massive $6 million, the film is already reportedly being groomed for next year’s Oscar race. The first narrative feature from filmmaker Ben Lewin since 1994’s Paperback Romance, The Surrogate tells the true story of journalist Mark O’Brien, a polio stricken man who, after living most of his life in an iron lung, decides to try to lose his virginity. Starring John Hawkes as O’Brien, The Surrogate received a standing ovation at it’s premiere, and it’s already being praised by critics […]
by Jane Schoenbrun on Jan 26, 2012 -
“THE SURROGATE” | director, Ben Lewin
[PREMIERE SCREENING: Monday, January 23, 12:15 pm –Eccles Theatre, Park City] My mother insisted I pursue a career as a lawyer so, when the opportunity to study filmmaking arose and I could put some distance between us – physically and philosophically – I leapt at it. In later years, my mother joined an extras casting agency and became a recognized face, and ironically, we discovered we had a common passion. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1866249/
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 23, 2012
