Written by Daniel Garber, editor of FX documentary SpermworldDuring the depths of the pandemic, I spoke with my dear friend and director Lance Oppenheim almost daily, going stir crazy while looking for a project to work on together. In January 2020, we premiered his first documentary feature, Some Kind of Heaven, at Sundance; its festival run was truncated by lockdowns and festival cancellations, and it would soon be released into a flatlining theatrical market. But amid that uncertainty, reporter Nellie Bowles contacted Lance with a strange story: she was looking to have a baby and discovered a massive, unregulated online marketplace for donor sperm on Facebook. Lance’s and my interest was immediately piqued. His first shoot, which formed the initial five-minute cold open of the film, took place at the end of 2020. We couldn’t let go of the story, a perfect fit for Lance’s sensibility: an empathic approach to a strange underworld populated by misfits who express fundamental human desires. SPERMWORLD | Official Trailer | FX www.youtube.com In our work together, Lance and I suppress the documentary urge to over-explain and instead focus on existential drama: where Some Kind of Heaven represented retirees contemplating the ends of their lives, Spermworld turns its attention to life’s origins. Elevated once again by the visual style Lance cultivated with unrivaled DP David Bolen and the musical innovations of the great Ari Balouzian, Spermworld was the ideal next step in developing our unique approach to documentary. For an editor equally versed in fiction...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Monday, 27 May, 2024