Janice Dawe of Bizable Media is pleased to announce that The World's Biggest Family, from multi-award-winning director Barry Stevens (Offspring, Prosecutor, War Story), will premiere on CBC Docs POV on Thursday, October 1 EDT, 2020 at 8 p.m. (9 AT, 9:30 NT) on CBC and the free CBC Gem streaming service.
Director Stevens has about 600 half-siblings, all conceived from the sperm of the same anonymous man. Thanks to the growing popularity of DNA companies such as 23AndMe, Stevens has identified about 50 of them, with more confirmed every month. In The World's Biggest Family, Stevens looks at the odd world of anonymous sperm donation and how the standard practice of anonymity is starting to crack open at last. Viewers will meet his new-found family - people whose whole
LIFE STORY has been turned upside down in middle age by a DNA result - and witness not only the shock, but the pleasure many 'donor'-conceived people have found in these new, unexpected families.
The documentary takes a critical look at the practice of anonymous sperm donation including the doctors who used their own sperm and lied about it; the anonymous donors with mental or physical genetic illnesses that are passed on unknowingly to several of their kids; and the donors who discover they may have hundreds of kids, despite being told by sperm banks that there were strict limits.
"For years, everyone in the fertility business treated sperm as though it was meaningless tissue," said Stevens. "Doctors told parents to lie and 'donors' that they would always be anonymous. But now the 'donor'-conceived are finding out the truth. They are discovering how powerful and important it is to know who you come from, and how dangerous it is not to know."
The World's Biggest Family is written, directed and produced by Stevens and executive produced by Dawe (nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, Year of the Gun, Sugar Coated). The documentary is produced by Kenvyn Productions in association with CBC, with the participation of the Canada Media Fund, Rogers Telefund, Ontario Creates, and the Canadian Film or Video Tax Credit
Cinematography is by Kiarash Sadigh (Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas, The Chair), editing by Petra Valier (Nahanni River of Forgiveness, Cyber-Seniors, Children of Soldiers), with music composition by Ken Myhr (The Accountant of Auschwitz, League of Exotique Dancers, Herman's House).
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