Seahorse
- Director: Jeanie Finlay
CGiii Comment
In 2018, Jason Barker gave the world, the mind-changing, monumentally moving: A Deal with the Universe.
A film about him, his family, his friends...armed with a blistering sense-of-humour, Jason revealed the bigger picture...and it was [still is] a [tear-stained] joy to witness.
There is little to no joy in Seahorse, there is no bigger picture...this is about Freddy and what he wants, petulantly so...replete with incessant moaning and complaining. Ooh Freddy...you should have taken a leaf out of Jason's book, his journey was so much harder, traumatic...and, still, with a smile, he soldiered on.
Two very different films, two [not-so] different people [yet, world's apart]...same result: A baby.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Jeanie Finlay’s new documentary thoughtfully chronicles a transgender man’s path to parenthood. Spirited and self-possessed, Freddy McConnell dreams of raising a child in his hometown of Deal, England. With ample support from his mom and his potential co-parent, C.J., he decides to carry the baby to term himself. At first, McConnell views pregnancy as a practical choice, but once he stops taking testosterone, it prompts an unexpected reckoning with his relationship to masculinity and gender presentation. Feeling as though he’s slipping away from his own body, Freddy navigates steep clinic bills, conversational micro-aggressions, and familial strain. Yet, his resolve to start a family never wavers.
Finlay rides sidecar with McConnell as an incisive observer and conversation partner, and crafts a compassionate portrait of an extraordinary journey, in which the word fatherhood comes to embody so much more than the normative sum of its parts.
—Dan Hunt