A documentary with a shockingly true story is set to have its Canadian premiere in Sudbury, Ont., this week.
‘Dad Genes’ tells the story of Aaron Long, a sperm donor who discovers he has more than 60 biological children through DNA testing.
Craig Downing, the film’s director, said he loves filming unique human-interest stories, and first heard about it through the film’s producer, Matt Isaac.
“Aaron was meeting some of his donor children. You know, they were flying out to Seattle all the way from the East Coast,” he said.
“That’s why I was drawn.”
“It is just a unique, unprecedented story.”
— Craig Downing, director of 'Dad Genes'
The film has already earned global recognition – holding its international premiere in Greece at the Thessaloniki Film Festival and screenings across the U.S. It has also won a best documentary feature award in Atlanta.
“For me, the award is when someone says, wow, this made me think about my mom or my dad or my brother or where I am and as far as family and dynamics and connections,” he said.
“That’s the real goal and that’s the real priority for us.”
It follows Long as he meets some of his biological offspring, but the story takes an emotional turn when he finds an unexpected connection: falling in love with the mother of two of those children.
Downing said the response has been overwhelmingly positive, attributing to the ever-changing dynamics of family in society.
“The idea of community and family has evolved as society has evolved,” he said.
“I think what’s happening, what’s family and what does that look like and what is this different version of that? And how does that relate to how I think or how family might be.”
‘Dad Genes’ will have its Canadian premiere during Sudbury Indie Cinema’s Junction North International Film Festival.
Festival director Simone Widdifield said it’s exciting when filmmakers’ premier a film locally.
“To have these filmmakers, who submit their films to this festival specifically seeking out this festival to have their films premiere, is just really amazing to see,” she said.
“It just again, connects you back to the whole world.”
Widdifield said Dad Genes will screen alongside ‘Daughters of Putien’ under the Family, Found and Lost category.
“We wanted to use the themes of finding your family in Dad Genes and then losing it and trying to reconstruct community around other people who have lost it,” she said.
The festival, which runs for four days, will feature a total of 31 films, five of which will be holding their world premieres.
Junction North is celebrating its 10-year anniversary.
“The attendees, even just broader members of the Indie, tell us all the time they love these documentaries,” Widdifield told CTV News.
“They love watching these stories, seeing stories from people across the world that they’ve never heard of and feeling so connected to them were so inspired by their journeys that really makes them come out and want to be surprised and want to experience what we’ve prepared for them every year.”
Junction North runs April 9 – 12 and Dad Genes premieres April 10 at 2:30 p.m.
