Rosie O'Donnell unveiled her HBO documentary about family diversity at a special screening in New York City on Tuesday evening.
The actress appeared with her ex, Kelli Carpenter, and their four children Vivienne Rose, Parker, Chelsea and Blake to reveal the documentary A Family is a Family is a Family: A Rosie O'Donnell Celebration, which showcases a wide range of modern-day families.
"We were trying to make as full a palette as we could to really show a cross section of what families are really made up of in today's society," O'Donnell told the Advocate at the screening, hosted by HBO and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. "We went to a bunch of different schools in New York, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas. We said it was a Rosie O'Donnell film, and the families that said, 'We'd like to participate,' we vetted them on that."
According to Broadwayworld, O'Donnell's new 40-minute moving portrait documentary illuminates the remarkable diversity of families today that challenge narrow-minded stereotypes, accenting same-sex parents, blended families, single parents and stories of adoption. Kids speak frankly and honestly about parents, siblings, marriage and love in the documentary.
Some children featured have two fathers or two mothers, a little was girl adopted from China to opposite sex parents, three brothers live with their mother and grandmother and a pair of mothers get married. The film also includes families with adopted children and kids born into love through in-vitro fertilization.
Directed and produced by Amy Schatz, whose credits include such award-winning HBO family productions as the Classical Baby series and the special Goodnight Moon & Other Sleepytime Tales, the documentary explores with candor the different families that exist in this new day and age.
In A Family is a family is a Family, O'Donnell talks with her daughter Vivienne Rose about how their family came about. Following her recent separation from Carpenter, O'Donnell reaffirms the significance of family telling her daughter, "Even though Mommy Kelli and I aren't living in the same house anymore, we're still a family. Family is forever. And family is love."
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Little Becky seemed to sum it up best, explaining, "It doesn't matter if you have one parent. It doesn't matter if you have two moms. It doesn't matter if you have two dads. Just stick with it. A family is a family."
An array of musical numbers interlude between discussions about family dynamics and the love that keeps it all together including "Tomorrow People" reggae sensation Ziggy Marley, blues beauty Bonnie Raitt and They Might Be Giants.
Animation makes its way throughout the film engaging children and adults alike with O'Donnell's whimsical performance of "My Science Project" that tells the tale of a young girl whose class project describes the scientific way she came to life.
O'Donnell spoke candidly about the decision to allow her children to appear in the public eye.
"Before 9/11, I never showed their faces," she said. "It was after 9/11 when I realized you only have one choice in life: faith or fear. I was really working in fear mode - I was worried somebody would take them or something would happen to them. After 9/11, it was almost like the fear bubble shattered and I realized that I don't have any control, and all you can do is love the people you love and tell people that you do, as truthfully as you can."
A Family is a Family is a Family debuts Sunday January 31 (7:00-7:40 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO.
Other HBO airdates: Feb. 4 (8:45 a.m., 8:00 p.m.), 6 (5:30 p.m.), 9 (12:45 p.m., 8:00 p.m.), 14 (12:30 p.m.), 18 (11:30 a.m.) and 22 (5:00 p.m.)
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