When Christina loses her husband, she makes the unexpected decision to retrieve sperm from his dead body, trying to keep their hopes of a family alive. RETRIEVAL explores life, legacy, and loss through the families and medical professionals navigating posthumous sperm retrieval and IVF after death.
Postmortem sperm retrieval, or PMSR, is a medical procedure that extracts sperm from men in the 72 hours after their death. Despite its invention in the 1970s, PMSR remains an unfamiliar idea to most Americans. Much like the early days of organ donation, many doctors aren’t aware of the option, and most families wouldn’t know to ask upon a loved one’s sudden death.
Through intimate verité storytelling, the film weaves together the perspectives of the doctors advancing the technology and the families going through the experience in real-time. Each subject’s story investigates the decision-making within families; the evolution of grief over time; and the lengths one might go for a miracle in the face of loss. RETRIEVAL immerses you in a world where people are grappling with life-altering decisions on a daily basis, begging the question: if science could allow you to hold onto a piece of someone you loved and lost, how far would you go to do it?
RETRIEVAL is supported by the Concordia Fellowship, Catapult Films, Sandbox FIlms, the Sundance Institute (DFP), the Ford Foundation, and Film Independent.
