A Film from Our Research: New Ways of Creating Families

In this blog post, Dr David Carless provides an update on how we are using the data generated in Phase 1 of the Online Sperm Donation Project to reach and educate new audiences through the medium of filmmaking. Check out our film below!

As engaged researchers, we are committed to finding ways to connect our research with wider society – to get beyond academic outlets so our findings reach more diverse publics. This seems especially important with online sperm donation where there is a lack of awareness among many in society. And, as we’ve been learning, a fair amount of misinformation about it too.

One approach that my colleagues and I have used in previous research is film. Film allows us to move away from the written word, to tell people’s stories with more intimacy, humanity, and aliveness. It’s a form of communication that most of us are used to engaging with, often on a daily basis. It is also a form that, since the advent of YouTube, is widely accessible – it reaches into our daily lives, wherever we are and whenever we press play.

In the context of research, film raises some ethical considerations. Such as: How can we preserve participants’ anonymity? How can we be sure that the stories we tell through our films are faithful to participants’ lives? For our film New Ways of Creating Families, we have worked with participants and our public involvement group to address these questions.

The film focuses on the experiences of two research participants, one recipient and one donor. It recounts moments from their stories, as shared during research interviews. For authenticity and precision, the words spoken in the film are verbatim – they are the actual words each participant used to tell us about their lives. To protect their anonymity, as our ethical approval requires, we have taken two steps:

1. Certain details (such as names and places) have been removed or changed;

2. Their testimonies have been performed by two members of the research team (Aleks Krotoski and myself).

To explore whether the film is faithful to lived experiences of online sperm donation, we have shared it with the recipient and donor as well as our public involvement group. The recipient has recently given birth so we haven’t heard back from her yet; but we are looking forward to hearing her thoughts. The donor responded:

“Wow!! I wasn't expecting this, but it was so professionally produced and so accurately portrayed. I'm very happy for you to share the video with a wider audience ... I thought you gave a very balanced view of what men and women are trying to get out of sperm donation.”

Following a screening at our recent team development day, one public involvement group member responded:

“I thought it was great. It really got a lot of the key elements that people worry about with online sperm donation. I think it was delivered fantastically.”

Another followed with:

“I would say the same. You can see that these are clearly huge interviews because you’ve really got the crux of a lot of these important points … It feels very personal. You feel for the person. You’re being pulled along on that journey. The written word has a lot of power as well, but there’s something about hearing these words being spoken.”

You can view the film on YouTube and below. If you would like to share your thoughts with us, please leave a comment or contact us by email at spermdonationproject@leedsbeckett.ac.uk