'little man' asks the big questions

by Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune

May 12 - DON'T MISS

"little man," 7 p.m. Friday, Showtime: From the first words of narration -- "They tell me they will place my son upon my chest so that he may go peacefully within his first moments of life" -- you know this is going to be difficult television. It's worth it. Filmmaker Nicole Conn records the unimaginable travails of her 100-days premature baby, delivered at under a pound with .00004 percent chance of survival by a surrogate mother who hid her dangerous pre-existing conditions. Fighting to keep alive a child that doctors and even her life partner think she should let go, Conn uses her grueling personal experience to ask relevant spiritual and political questions. The filmmaking is a bit amateurish and the score maudlin, but those are mere nit-picks compared to the impact of Conn's ordeal.