The Guys Next Door

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Director: Amy Geller and Allie Humenuk
Runtime: 74 mins​
Rating: NR
DVDCat#: PRDVD3638
UPC:616074738086
Pre Book: 5/9/17
Street: 2/13/18
SRP: $24.95

GENRES: documentary, LGBT, gender studies, family studies

SYNOPSIS:
Who, among us, can say that we come from a “normal” family? The Guys Next Door, a feature length documentary, offers an alternative to the traditional ideas of what constitute the nuclear American family. Meet Erik and Sandro, a gay couple with two daughters birthed by
their friend Rachel with donor eggs. In her 40s, Rachel is  married to Tony and they have three biological children of their own.

Rachel and Tony, a seemingly traditional married couple, live in the suburbs of Massachusetts with their children. Inspired by a TV program about the difficulties and costs associated with gay couples having children, Rachel, age 41, volunteers to be a surrogate – not once, but twice
within two years – for Erik, her good friend from college, and his husband Sandro, an Italian émigré.

This film begins when Rachel is eight months pregnant with Erik and Sandro’s second daughter, Eleonora. What compels a woman in her forties with three children of her own to carry children for friends? What is the reaction of her husband and children? And, how will Erik and Sandro handle the challenges of parenting two girls in a world that still emphasizes the importance of maternal instinct?

The issues raised in this film - gay marriage and parenting, surrogacy as a path for gays and lesbians to have children, and the extension and redefinition of what it means to be “an American family" - remain relevant as our country is a cultural battleground during the divisive
2016 presidential election. The Guys Next Door is a powerful antidote to the negative backlash and hateful rhetoric aimed at same sex families. In the words of the esteemed documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee (Sherman’s March), “with nuance, verve and humor, this film goes well beyond issues of surrogacy and gay parenthood and explores the humanity that connects us all.