And Baby Makes Two

Single motherhood is no longer the exclusive province of teenagers; white middle class women in their 30s and 40s are now joining its ranks.

Series
Independent Lens
Premiere Date
September 1, 1999
Length
60 minutes
Funding Initiative
Open Call
Producer

Judy Katz

Katz has been working as a producer and writer in documentaries over the past 12 years, most recently as supervising producer at National Geographic Explorer where she helped create the award winning series Explorer Journal, a forum allowing non-filmmakers to tell their own stories on small format video. Prior to that she worked for NOVA at WGBH in Boston… Show more and for a number of other PBS series. Judy has had a lifelong interest in oral history and giving voice to those who would otherwise go unheard. Show less

Producer

Oren Rudavsky

Rudavsky has been producing and photographing documentaries since 1980. His last film, A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The subjects of his film have ranged from mental illness to race relations, the Amish, Jews in Eastern Europe, nuns, and Hasidim. Selected credits include: Spark Among the Ashes, At the Crossroads, Gloria: A Case of Alleged Police Brutality,… Show more and Dreams So Real. His films have appeared on WNET, PBS, and ABC, and have been shown at Sundance, Berlin, AFI, San Francisco, Sydney, London, and other prestigious film festivals. He has worked independently, as well as for such entities as ABC Primetime Live, Saturday Night Live, and The Real World. Oren prefers to work on films about marginal communities, or individuals whose voices have not been heard in the mainstream. Show less

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The Film

As American families change in profound ways, And Baby Makes Two sheds light on the growing number of "unattached" women who are choosing to become pregnant through traditional means, artificial insemination, and adoption. Funny and poignant, the documentary takes the viewer on an emotional roller-coaster ride as we come to know and identify with the very human desires of the women in the film.

These are not strident political activists trying to make a point but rather real, ordinary women who have not been able to find a partner willing to commit to a relationship, marriage, and/or fatherhood. They are women who always thought that motherhood would be a part of their lives and, with the proverbial clock ticking, have found themselves forced to be mothers on their own.
And Baby Makes Two follows a group of single New York City 30- and 40-something women (and their often shocked and concerned parents), for whom the ticking of biological clocks is louder than the screech of the city's subway trains and taxi horns. Over the course of several years, these six women provide support and encouragement for one another as they journey towards motherhood in a world that has not looked kindly on single moms. Far from the stereotypical "spinsters" of yesteryear, these women are intelligent, financially independent, funny, attractive, and articulate — but like millions of women, things have not turned out exactly as they'd planned.

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