Birth/Rebirth

Dr. Rose Casper is a forensic pathologist and recluse who prefers the company of cadavers from the morgue to social interaction. She finds the idea of female biological reproduction distasteful, but is obsessed with its clinical processes, gestating materials in her own body in order to discover a way to bring the dead back to life. Celie Morales is a maternity nurse and single mother whose life revolves around her precocious five-year-old daughter, Lila. Efficient and empathetic, she is passionate about helping women give birth in an environment where they feel empowered and listened to. The worlds of these two women collide when Lila dies suddenly and ends up on Rose's autopsy table. The circumstances of the little girl's death make her the perfect human candidate for Rose's next experiment. When Lila's body disappears from the hospital, Celie begins to suspect that Rose is to blame. She forces her way into Rose's Co-op City apartment and discovers her daughter, reanimated in a home lab but just barely clinging to life. Rose's experiment has worked. She's brought Lila back from the dead. The treatment however, is highly experimental, and the little girl's continued recovery is anything but certain. Both women realize they will need to draw on each other's very different expertise in order to keep Lila alive. ==Cast==

• Marin Ireland as Rose • Judy Reyes as Celie • A. J. Lister as Lila • Breeda Wool as Emily • Monique Gabriela Curnen as Rita • Grant Harrison as Scott • LaChanze as Colleen • Rina Mejia as Pauline ==Production==

Lee Moss devised a story concept based on their obsession with Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein in the early 2000s. Moss began a first draft of 60 pages consisting of mainly imagery and story ideas. Brendan J. O'Brien, their long-time writing partner, then outlined the plot and wrote the second draft. Moss explained to Filmmaker, "That tends to be how we work: his drafts are too long, my drafts are too short. We bat scenes back and forth, and by the end of the process, we don't even remember who touched what. We're very much married by the end of it". Principal photography took place in New Jersey and the Co-op City area of New York City from August to late September 2022. ==Release==

Birth/Rebirth premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2023, and was screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 31, 2023. The film was released in theaters in the United States by IFC Films on August 18, 2023, and began streaming on Shudder on November 10, 2023. Critical reception Jessica Kiang from Variety called it "a clever, provocative new take on a horror classic" and said "Ireland and Reyes breathe new life into a literary touchstone in director Lee Moss' drolly disturbing biological horror". Jordan Mintzer writing for The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review saying, "Not for the fainthearted, this twisted if not exactly terrifying feature takes some cues from Stuart Gordon's 1985 cult flick Re-Animator, as well as from classics like Dracula and Frankenstein, in its grisly portrayal of two women resurrecting a little girl's dead corpse in the name of science and love". He also compared the story's concept to David Cronenberg's Crimes of the Future and the Alien films but elaborated, "Moss tackles the idea from a more intimate and feminist perspective, questioning how far mothers are willing to go for their children, or simply to become mothers at all". The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis named it a "Critic's Pick" writing, "Motherhood is both mad and monstrous in Birth/Rebirth, Lee Moss's ultrasmart, ferociously feminist take on the Frankenstein myth...as the women's behavior grows ever more shocking Moss offers no rebuke to their heedless amorality. There is only the audience to judge." Awards and nominations On December 5, 2023, the film was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Lead Performance for Reyes and Best Screenplay. ==See also==