Spermworld（2024）

The world of private sperm donation takes center stage in Lance Oppenheim’s second feature about the online portals facilitating off-the-record baby-making. With the rules of the game undefined and few, if any, legal protections in place for those who partake, Spermworld takes us across America, to encounter donors and recipients as they exchange the “goods” but also the emotional baggage that comes with procreation. We meet Ari, who has fathered over 120 children yet continues to yearn for his mother’s approval; Atasha, who reluctantly accepts her partner’s line of work while hoping for her own positive pregnancy test; and Steve, whose altruism is challenged when he develops feelings for a recipient. An incisive and assured portrait of the human desire to connect in an increasingly alienating world.