Our Father

A woman in Indianapolis takes a home DNA test and discovers she has seven half siblings. The trail leads to one name: Donald Cline, the fertility specialist who treated her mother years earlier. The documentary establishes that Cline used his own sperm on his patients without their knowledge or consent. What is most shattering is the number. More than fifty siblings have been identified and the estimates run far higher, all of them raised in the same city, in neighbourhoods close to one another. The film's most measurable effect was legal: the case led to state laws making fertility fraud a crime. Lucie Jourdan directed, with Jason Blum among the producers, and Netflix released it on 11 May 2022. The film has a problem of its own. It displayed on screen the names of three women who had not agreed to be identified, and was sued over it. A documentary about violated consent ended up in court for violating consent. Who it is for: viewers who follow true crime documentary. Who it is not for: anyone who will find the dramatised reconstructions excessive.