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What will surely be one of the strongest contenders in the documentary category is “haveababy”, directed by Amanda Micheli. And, as it happens, it would never have been made if not for the very strong personal connection Amanda had with its subject, IVF, or in vitro fertilization.

In our candid interview, she said that she and her husband had been having their own problems conceiving a child. Although her husband was diagnosed with testicular cancer, now in remission, they continued their efforts, including Amanda’s first IVF treatment. While it was unsuccessful, she began doing more extensive research on the technique.  She said she was not thinking about the subject for her next documentary film but only as someone exploring the medical remedies available for a personal problem.

But then she came across the Sher Institute in Las Vegas.

Dr. Geoffrey Sher’s practice was exclusively in IVF, and it was very expensive. But the most unique aspect of the Institute was its annual contest in which the winner would receive the complete treatment absolutely free. It was then she knew she had to make a film about it.

From the beginning of the film, we are shown that the doctor and his staff take the selection process very seriously. Each contestant sends a video in which the couple – or, in the case of Athena, a single female – describes their personal situation, and most detail years of anguish and disappointment. The judging team is put through the wringer emotionally; it causes real pain for them to reject any of them. But finally, the ten finalists were chosen.

Although Micheli shot footage of all ten of them, the film only deals with three: Rosalinda and Dago, a hispanic couple in San Antonio; Athena, a Lady Gaga impersonator, in New York, who is a lesbian; and Ann and Brian, a bi-racial couple in Wisconsin, who had previously conceived twins, in vitro, but had lost both of them in childbirth.

We are kept in suspense about who the winner is until the film’s final moments. But, until then, there is a great deal of often complex medical information to absorb. It is presented clearly, and with imaginatively edited footage showing the biological processes involved. Micheli knew she mustn’t let it detract from her compelling narrative about the three contestants, and she didn’t let that happen. We get to know these people intimately, and the bitter-sweet ending manages to convey Micheli’s deepest admiration for their courage.

Although Micheli started her career doing her own editing, she used two editors on this film, Greg O’Toole and Lisa Fruchtman, and they painstakingly reduced the two-to-three hundred hours of footage to a tight seventy-seven minutes. She really values that “extra set of eyes” which see the material from a fresh perspective. But she has always handled all of the cinematography herself, and her pride in her skills really shows.

Looking back, she thinks her Harvard education was crucial to her development as an artist, and gives high marks to its documentary school. In fact, she ranks a student thesis film by a senior classmate as one of her greatest inspirations. Although never released theatrically, “Love Knots”, by Allison Humenuk, was a revelation to her. After seeing it, she said to herself, “Hey, I can do that!” The friendship continues, with Alison working for her on the “haveababy” shoot. Micheli cites another obscure documentary, “Seventeen”, by Jeff Demott and Joel Kreines, which she saw in high school, as just as galvanizing.

Committed to the documentary form from the beginning, she has had a distinguished career, which includes an Oscar nomination for “La Corona”, which she co-directed with Isabel Vega. Success has also led to greater autonomy, and she has formed her own production company, Runaway Films. In partnership with Serin Marshall, who produced “haveababy”, she has access to larger budgets for her projects. But, perhaps from habit, she keeps a lean crew by multi-tasking as often as possible.

Her range of skills isn’t total, though. Her only original script, tentatively titled “Tomboy”, was a struggle to complete. She feels more secure in documentary, where the limits are set by reality, by what is actually there to film. With a fiction story, however, you can set the limits anywhere, which can also immobilize you. But she feels obligated to the San Francisco Film Society, which gave her a grant for the project, and hopes to finish it someday.

The business at hand, however, is “haveababy”, which has no theatrical distributor yet. Still, she is very excited about having the film shown in schools, and plans to make personal appearances at events that make the public more aware of IVF as a real option for childless women. Her pride in the film has lessened the disappointment from her own situation; she has had three unsuccessful IVF treatments so far. But “haveababy”, while not a real child, is still the offspring of a woman’s love of life.

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