by Jenna Colley

"Judicial approval of a lesbian and gay adoption is important because it says that this family has been under the microscope and passed the test...this is a family ready to raise a child."
-- Attorney and mediator Suzanne Bryant

Every day, people make important decisions based on little, if any, information, while they aimlessly stumble through the world of politics and politicians, trying to make sense of it all. Somewhere along the way they teach their children the skills they need not only to survive, but to understand the world around them. Why, then, do the parents and policy makers of the world deny access to all sides of every story? Why does our society allow children to grow up unaware? The stories are there; they are simply waiting to be told. Independent filmmaker Jessica Bega has taken on that responsibility. She has chosen not to ignore the world around her. She has recently finished Worthy Mothers, an hour-long documentary on two lesbian couples and their experiences in adopting and raising children. Mothers chronicles the adoption processes of Joy, Margo, Sheila and Jo Anna, two couples who, like many of us, are braving a challenge as old as time: motherhood. However, unlike many of us, they face the constant scrutiny of society. They are gay and, by virtue of their sexuality, are doomed to the backhanded remarks and polite impoliteness of a society that refuses to believe that they can do it.

Bega used the volatile immediacy inherent in the medium of film to present these women, their families, their attorneys, and children as the actual people who suffer at the hands of so many moral accusations. By interviewing these people, Bega manages to educate her viewer, something that has driven her to push this project from the very beginning.

The film is divided into the two separate yet similar stories of four women. Worthy Mothers opens with the story of Joy and Margo, a bi-racial lesbian couple who have adopted Felicia. Their hesitations about parenthood are no different than those of any couple: Will they have enough time to spend together. Are they ready to make the leap? The segment is interspersed between home videos, still photos, and interviews. Bega puts her camera into the homes and lives of Joy and Margo, leaving little untouched, yet never does the viewer feel like an intruder in their lives. These are mothers, trying to nurture and raise a child-nothing more, nothing less.

The second segment is slightly different than the first. Although Shelia and Jo Anna also adopt children, the boys to whom they eventually attain full parental rights are actually Shelia's nephews. Sheila's brother, James, who we learn was in jail when his wife Aurora first entrusted the boys (Cody and Jeffrey) to the couple's care, threatens to fight for custody of the children.

Throughout the film, Shelia and Jo Anna express their concern over his return. Not only do they battle the hardships of their unique situation, but also the potential for conflict with the boy's father. Bega beautifully captures this frustration, without exploiting the couple's situation. The film is both touching and informative, a balance too rarely found in modern film.

Bega's insight into the emotional and technical science of filmaking has come through direct experience. After working as a researcher at the CBS Sports Archives and for Galan Productions, the production company founded by Hector Galan, who produced Chicano! for PBS, Bega decided to invest her time and devotion into her first totally independent project. "I had always known that I wanted to do documentary work, but never knew exactly what I want to work on," Bega says. "The concept of lesbian mothers hit me spontaneously. Fortunately I had access to the tools necessary for making the piece. This was what I had been waiting for."

By depicting the lives of the four women in such a straightforward and suprisingly unmelodramitic light, Bega succeeds in providing the viewer with a real feel for her subjects. She puts faces on the issues and, by doing so, allows even hesitant viewers a window into the lives and obstacles of lesbian parents. "Actually I had known the four women for a while, so finding subjects for the piece was quite easy. When I approached them, they all thought that it was interesting-none of us really knew what would become of it." Proof that the issue of same-gender parenting is finally coming to the foreground, Worthy Mothers has been picked up and is well-received on the festival circuit, the dream zone of many independent filmmakers in search of recognition and future funding. "The film premiered in June at the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival and has taken off from there," Bega says. "It has hit Los Angeles, Vancouver, Milwaukee, and most recently Washington DC. This really has been an independent project from beginning to end. Luckily, Women Make Movies, a distribution company out of New York, picked it up for distribution. Without distribution, filtering it out into the educational market is very difficult. A film that looks at different types of families is definitely something that needs to be seen."

Respectfully, Bega, at the request of the four women featured in Worthy Mothers, has chosen not to show the film in Austin for the time being. Although the women are openly gay, certain circumstances are such that showing the film will not be possible until later.

Worthy Mothers succeeds in conveying its fundamental message: a child raised in a loving household, whether their parents are gay or not, is lucky. The facts are there: "children of gay and lesbian parents are no more likely to be confused in sexual gender roles or social relationships, and will not likely be homosexual or bisexual." The courage to fight the myths lies in the hands of mothers like Joy, Margo, Sheila, and Jo Anna. They have chosen not only to take pride in their sexuality, but in their rights as mothers. There is no doubt that, when the time comes, they will be able to provide their children with the skills, the knowledge, and the understanding to endure. They have passed the test: they are families.