An in-depth, cinematic look at the intimacy of a natural birth as we follow a woman giving birth and stay with her throughout the course of her postpartum journey.

Director’s Vision for ‘Hemingway’

It’s honestly hard to pen a statement about this because it is so deeply personal.

I have always loved art that feels authentic and captures something raw and honest that feels almost unfilmable. There’s real magic and spirit when it comes to capturing something you can’t really prep for at all…It’s all intuitive.

We had 2 DPs on this piece who my wife trusted to be in the room with us, and I told them it’s completely intuitive and that the language for this piece can only be found in the very moment as I was fully present with her. But this idea all started when my wife asked me one day when she was pregnant, “What if we were to film and capture me giving birth to our son?” At first, I wasn’t so sure about that idea. But I began to think about how incredible that sounded if we were truly able to pull it off. So, the more and more I thought about it…The idea really stuck with me. So, what you see is completely real and nothing at all is planned. We filmed a real birth happening live on camera.

I soon realized we have never seen anything really like it—a birth captured in a highly cinematic, tasteful way, at least in the way I saw that it could be done. You really only see these birthing videos in sexual education classes and or birthing classes, but they aren’t the most beautiful things to watch. Birth is a very raw thing but it truly is so surreal and beautiful. My goal was to capture the spirit of that moment when life first sees the world around them for the first time. Silence right before the first cry. As a parent, I felt I had this real duty to use my storytelling gift to help bridge the gap and show how beautiful the birthing process can be for all mothers, soon-to-be mothers, and parents. This idea of watching creation come to life in front of your eyes felt reminiscent of what it means to be an artist when a piece of art is born.

This vision of seeing creation born really inspired me. I began to talk with the midwives and the hospital about how we could properly execute this piece, given their limitations as well. My goal and intention were to capture the strength and beauty of motherhood and my wife, and the clear love and support for partnerships. I also wanted to really capture what a “natural” childbirth looks like through an authentic lens as well as capture the postpartum phase.

I had a close friend tell me after she watched, “I think every pregnant woman needs to see this film. It could help change the narrative about birth in America…” That statement really hit me. I think that’s the power of film.

My wife is a true hero. I am forever grateful to her for allowing me to capture and document this incredibly vulnerable moment. I look at filmmakers like John Cassavettes, Sean Baker, Derek Cianfrance, or Terrence Malick. I was definitely thinking about longer takes, natural lighting, and cinéme vérité slice-of-life moments that can’t be planned when making a film like this one.

When we first filmed this, I was thinking this would just be a personal diary piece for my wife and me to always have as a memory and to show our son later in life, but once my editor put a cut together we realized that it was something special that we wanted to share with the world.

And so the title HEMINGWAY is our son’s name, and I can’t wait for the world to meet him.