The Advocate Review

by Anne Stockwell

Filmmaker Nicole Conn (Claire of the Moon) loved parenting so much that after Conn’s partner, philanthropist Gwen Baba, birthed daughter Gabrielle, Conn decided to have a second child, through a surrogate. She planned to document that experience on film.

She got more than she bargained for. Nicholas was born some three months premature. It seemed impossible that this tiny creature would live. But he did. Now, along with the gutsy women in his family, Nicholas is the hero of little man, Conn’s absorbing chronicle of his life so far. The documentary has already won big honors at New York’s NewFest and the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

Political differences be damned, audiences feel for this family. Says Baba: “This is the perfect blue movie for the red states.”

And despite his health problems, Nicholas’s feisty spirit leaps off the screen. Conn says, “He’s electrically happy, the most enchanting little one I’ve ever known.”

 

"Over the Moon in Miami" from theadvocate.com

The Advocate’s first trip to the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is about good movies, great company, and, ah, that beach

... At 3 p.m., I walk down to the bustling promenade of Lincoln Road to the Regal Cinemas, where Nicole Conn’s documentary little man turns out to be riveting. It’s the story of Nicholas, Conn’s son with partner Gwen Baba, born 100 days premature. We see him from the start, his tiny, baby bird-like form sequestered in his incubator at the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Nobody except Conn thought this child would—or perhaps, should—survive. He’d be so impaired, his systems so undeveloped, he’d have no shot at an acceptable quality of life. The story that follows is both fascinating and heartbreaking, and it marks a clean and altogether surprising departure from the work of the young Nicole Conn who made Claire of the Moon....

... Now, waiting for the final audience award, the buzz in the crowd is all about Adam & Steve. But when the announcement comes, the audience award for best feature goes to little man.

Nicole Conn and producing partner Danny Jacobsen are incredulous, jumping up and down, trading rib-crushing hugs. Their elation is impossible to resist. Must as they loved Adam & Steve, onlookers are happy to celebrate with little man. What accounted for the upset? Maybe, as somebody remarks, it’s that lesbian audiences take voting more seriously than the men. Or maybe it’s just a cosmic high-five to baby Nicholas, who’s now 3 years old, and his indefatigable moms.