KEY POINTS:
Very occasionally we see a documentary that takes the art of storytelling to an entirely new level. A documentary that not only raises the standard of documentary-making, but challenges us on many levels.
Charlotte's Web, the emotion-filled story of celebrity Charlotte Dawson searching for her birth mother, is
one such documentary.
Now four years on another hopes to revive that winning formula. Separation follows one man's very personal journey as he searches for his foreskin, the very foreskin that was so painfully taken from him more than 35 years before.
But the story is more than just the quest for the foreskin itself, says documentary producer Julie Christieson. It is a story about personal and spiritual growth, a search for the inner, or rather the outer, man.
We learn that the foreskin, or rather the lack of it, is the physical representation of Gareth's insecurities, and the search or quest for the foreskin is merely a vehicle, if you like, to explore in more depth Gareth as a middle-aged man in the new millennium.
In the first part of the doco we learn that Gareth felt lost, insecure and incomplete as a teenager. This, combined with an influx of testosterone flowing through his body, led him to drink alcohol occasionally, grow a mullet, masturbate more, and at one point he even started a rock band in his garage.
But when Gareth turned 35 he really began to sub-consciously yearn for that part of himself he no longer had.
This is typical for many males Gareth's age, says psychologist Phillipa Downey.
Gareth doesn't know it, but he suffers from foreskin separation syndrome.
FSS may be the cause of Gareth's distress but the symptoms can vary from sufferer to sufferer, says Downey. Many men mask their syndrome by having a mid-life crisis, often culminating in them quitting their job, having an affair, or both.
Downey believes most men who have a mid-life crisis are probably suffering from foreskin separation syndrome.
This opinion seems to be backed by a recent study in Holland which suggests that uncircumcised men are 35 per cent less likely to have a mid-life crisis.
Gareth's story began in 1971 when he was circumcised at Dunedin Women's Hospital. As was common in those days little reverence or regard was placed on the small insignificant piece of skin removed from the end of the penis, and few documents are available to give any vital clues about its possible whereabouts.
Nowadays it would be common for the foreskin to be presented to the family after the brief surgical procedure, allowing them the option of planting it in the garden beneath a native tree, using it for very minor skin grafts later in life, or presenting it to the boy at his 21st birthday, just after he has completed his yard glass. But as we know, back when Gareth was circumcised, the foreskin was merely discarded.
Gareth's best hope is the surgeon who circumcised him, but the surgeon's memory of exactly what he did with the foreskin after the procedure is sketchy at best, and his attempt to recall the events under hypnosis makes for some interesting television.
Thanks to flimsy hearsay leads, Gareth's search for his foreskin takes him all over the world and gives the viewer an insight into other countries' male rites-of-passage customs, and the logistics of getting an airline to sponsor a television documentary.
We visit India, New York, Istanbul and London, and it's the travel through these countries with stopovers that makes up the bulk of the three-hour documentary.
We feel for Gareth as he quite literally door-knocks in foreign lands, asking strangers if they have any knowledge of his foreskin, and it's this cringey, emotional connection with Gareth that makes this documentary so compelling.
But unlike many quest-focused documentaries that fail to deliver a satisfying resolution, Separation does just that with a surprising twist.
While in a hotel room in Paris, after many months travelling the world searching for his foreskin, a dejected Gareth receives a phone call with the news he has long been waiting for.
A tearful Gareth listens as a researcher explains that they may have found his foreskin at a medical school in Dunedin.
Ironically after a search that has taken Gareth to more than 27 countries and four continents, his foreskin might just be residing in a sample jar at Otago University only a few miles from where it was first removed.
Gareth knows it's a longshot, but if there is a positive match, he may be reunited with the foreskin he hasn't seen for more than 35 years. I don't want to give the end away (excuse the pun) but if the foreskin does belong to Gareth he will have a number of options to consider, one of which may include micro-surgery to have his estranged foreskin re-attached. This is definitely a documentary to set the My Sky for.
