Nate Dorn is a photographer that makes his living creating engaging images for a variety of outlets. He is known for colorful imagery and imaginative storytelling. He is smart, handy, and great with dogs. He is warm, funny, curious, loving, gregarious, and makes an impression. People remember Nate Dorn. And as it turns out; he’s very fertile.

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In college, like many students, Nate needed extra money. He worked a series of odd jobs to make ends meet. One day he walked into a fertility clinic to earn extra money. They explained the process and how his donation would be used. He was told it would be only used a limited number of times and then ‘retired’. He could keep things confidential from family and friends, avoiding any potential embarrassment. Eighteen year old Nate was filled with an optimistic and adventurous spirit mixed with a touch of naïveté and armed with that, he signed paperwork saying he would be open to contact from the offspring down the road. After all, he was up for anything, right? 

Nate, young and contemplative

As the years passed he chased after his life, rarely thinking of that moment in time. The clinic money was spent and he had moved on. He focused on finishing college and starting his career. His brother and two sisters would eventually get married and have kids, but Nate never quite found a partner the way his siblings had and stayed single. His work allowed him to always be on the move, having different experiences and adventures, constantly bounding from one experience to another. 

Nate and brother Travis Dorn

Nate in his natural environment

Years later the clinic reached out with a request for a meet-up. One of his biological offspring wanted to meet. Her name was Kianni. Questions raced through his mind; What did she want? Who was he to her? What did he owe her? What does all this mean?

For Kianni, meeting Nate was not about her looking for someone to pay for college or to walk her down the aisle. It was about her continuing a journey of discovery that began years earlier. Back in the 90’s, Kianni’s mom, Ruth, had been in a serious relationship with a woman. They moved in together and decided to take the next step, seek out a sperm donor and try to have a child together. That decision led them to select Nate’s donation and that donation led to Kianni. Ruth would eventually have another partner with two sons and Kianni would grow up with them for almost a decade. Kianni loved having two younger step-brothers and they were all very close. However when the couple split the boys were gone, leaving Kianni feeling lonely. She loved the feeling of being a big sister and now that was gone.

Kianni's Mom, Ruth

Newborn Kianni

Kianni and Mom, Ruth

Twins Ava and Sophia, first donor siblings Kianni meets

In an effort to find other families that shared the same donor, Ruth and Kianni signed up for the Donor Sibling Registry, which helps families connect and communicate with one another or with their donor. When they first joined the registry there were between fifteen and twenty offspring but the numbers began to grow each year. The emergence of web-based genealogy sites began to bring siblings together faster and faster. Kianni became the organizer of a private social media group solely for her siblings. She was told by the clinic that she was in fact Nate’s first born, so that made her the big sister to each and everyone she was connecting with, a feeling she relished. 

17 year old Kianni meets Nate

The clinic's call to Nate about the meet-up led to Nate and Kianni’s first meeting. It happened during one of his work trips that brought him to Orlando doing photography in/around one of the amusement parks for an advertising campaign. Kianni she even had some apprehension; how would they greet one another? She knew he didn’t tell the people with him, was it going to be weird? When they did meet, he hugged her and they were off. It was awkward, lovely, silly, and full of nerves on both sides but they got through it admirably.

A typical sibling reunion

Kianni got to know Nate and to see how he carried himself, Nate realized that the process of meeting her didn’t ‘hurt’. As Nate did not keep up with the Donor Sibling Registry, Kianni was the one to inform Nate that (at that time) there were over forty offspring.

That number shocked him. As a teen, he was assured his sample would be used for 'twenty family units' and then retired. However this overuse was evidently a regular occurrence in the fertility world, not 'illegal' but a bit of a murky gray area. The original clinic Nate donated through was sold and Nate's sample (among many others) was acquired by a new corporate entity, evaluated, and put back into circulation without consulting him. The assurances made to college-aged Nate no longer applied and the new company continued to sell his sample. 

In the years following Nate has occasionally met a handful of the siblings, almost always brokered by Kianni. It was lunch or a coffee with these curious strangers who just wanted to see what Nate was all about. He would meet them one or two at a time. Eventually the sibling group started to grow. Dozens of others began to reach out; some testing the waters, some wanting community, and some wanting to know more about Nate. 

Nate with Meredith, Joanna, Kianni, and Maggie

Nate with siblings at a reunion in 2023

Today Nate Dorn has over 82 biological offspring (that choose to identify) and every so often more siblings come out of the woodwork. They range in age from as young as five or six and to their late twenties. No matter how it got to them, Nate’s donation has given dozens of families the ability to have children and to create a family of their own. Kianni and the group organize meet-ups twice a year around the country. And they're from everywhere; Hawaii, Ohio, Texas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Australia, New Zealand, and more. It has enabled her to travel and connect with this community she built. With each meet-up, Kianni would get to fill the role of the big sister. She was, after all, the first born. 

Well, that's not entirely true...But no spoilers, we'll get into that in the film.

Me the day I fell in love with Nate

I have known Nate Dorn for the almost 20 years. He is an engaging renaissance man; part burly outdoorsman, part athlete, and part artist. He is sensitive, smart, silly, and one of the most creative people I've ever known. So when he confided in me about this story I was deeply moved and curious about how and why he kept it quiet and how hard it must have been keeping that secret inside as a young man.

An added layer is that Nate comes from an epic family. His unique relatives came over on the Mayflower, were here when the colonies were founded, and include a famous war hero and Eli Whitney in their ranks. They can trace the family tree back centuries. His siblings have married and had kids of their own. But, for whatever reason, Nate did not. But, as it turns out he's outpaced his brother and sisters with his progeny and Nate's story takes a hatchet to the traditional family tree model. I want to tell this story because I hope to examine a few things;

• Nate's story arc from loner to adventurous mentor

• Kianni's story of escaping loneliness by collecting her family

• Seeing the everyday stories this unique American family

• How the fertility industry failed Nate, but gave birth to a family

Fertility treatments like IVF have been at the center of recent political debates. Rumblings have resurfaced and it has activists working to ban IVF treatments all together. We hope to tell our story so people can see the love, the suffering, and joy these families endure. This process helps people create their family and that is a remarkably precious thing.

In the process of producing, shooting, and researching this doc, I have met and communicated with many diverse families of all political stripes and sexual preferences, conservative and liberal, who all openly state that they owe their family to Nate, and that they revere his role in their family. We hope to not engage in a complicated and hot-button debate with anyone. We simply hope to tell the tale of all the families around this story. Hopefully everyone will be able to connect to these families emotionally and see themselves in the story.

How was it that Nate's sample was overused?

Nate was told that his sample would be used for 20 families and then it would be retired. 50+ families later there are over 79 offspring who owe their existence to that sample.

We have been told 'this is pretty common' in the fertility business, but our thesis is that, since they help make people and all, maybe it shouldn't be?

We have shot 4 out of our scheduled 19 days of principal photography. We are crowd funding to get our team in front of multiple siblings from this widespread family group. We have tons of footage on our drives and several sequences and scenes cut. Our documentary process is to collect as much as you can and keep the process open to discovery along the themes we laid out earlier.

Once funds are raised, we will immediately go into production and ideally complete our principal photography before the end of Summer 2025.

Then it's on to showing the film, by any means necessary.

If we are fortunate enough to get ahead on this thing, we have a pile of additional needs that we can focus on for our 'stretch goals'. It took us 61 hours to reach half of our goal. Now I realize that we will most likely plateau in the fundraising, activity slowing for a spell, but the optimist in me asks; What if we don’t?

We are currently attempting to raise $20,000 to film the baseline story of the documentary. However our original full budget to produce, travel the crew, shoot, and edit the film was estimated at $80,000 - $90,000, but Seed&Spark advised us to cut it down to just the filming funds for maximum success.

So, if we are fortunate enough to raise over our amount, we will definitely find something to help the project. Our stretch goals include;

POST PRODUCTION

• EDITOR
• SOUND DESIGNER
• Film Score/Music Licensing

ADDITIONAL SHOOTING CREW

• Traditionally we're a two-person outfit with additional funds we can hire a few specialists that would make our days go faster
• GAFFER - hep with lighting
• MAKE UP ARTIST
• POST PRODUCTION MANAGER - help sort and organize footage

FILM FESTIVALS

• We hope to take the final product on a tour of film festivals to help it find an audience

ADDITIONAL TRAVEL

• Paying for additional travel, be it for our crew or to bring a sibling to us
• Having them in-person beats a video call
• ADDITIONAL EXPERT INTERVIEW TRAVEL - Subject matter experts who may need to travel

Our goal is to tour film festivals, including some that focus on documentary content. Using momentum and any press materials garnered from those screenings, we plan to market the film accordingly to streaming services. Obviously this is the most preferred path forward.

We have discussed taking the film out on a nationwide tour ourselves, but that certainly would be an undertaking.

Once we have premiered the project at our a selection of film festivals, our digital copies will be delivered to them. Several festivals we would wish to attend have 'premiere viewing' rules and we would hope to comply with that and then promptly deliver the digital file to our campaign donors.

We will hope to partner with an IVF nonprofit, public broadcasting, and (possibly) the BBC and I could foresee materials related to the doc being viewable in cooperation with them.

To make this campaign work, we need you. Duh.

But really, we need you to give a crud and pledge a donation, follow our media, and share it with your network.

And by share, we mean emails too. Now I know, everyone shares links and that gets clicks and 'likes' but Seed&Spark tells us (and they've done thousands of these) that those 'likes' only yield a 1% return... Meaning, we're all hitting "like" and moving on.

To give you a real world example; Nate wrote a heartfelt blurb on his FB page and included the link where he told people what was happening and why he was participating in the doc. Our donations went from 40% percent to 50% in the matter of a several hours.

If you know me, I'm asking you to email people about project and tell them why they should care. Good story, good crew, etc... Whatever you see your motivation to follow, share, help, and donate to our project. Make it personal and sincere and that will get people clicking through to the project and donating.

We will need every voice out there to be hollering about this project. Every little bit helps and no shout-out or donation amount is too small.

@DONOR.doc

During our campaign, we will post updates in the form of interviews with our crew, announcing key milestones in production, conducting Q&A's with our donor family, and chats with some subject matter experts.

Here's a pitch for your friends...

At 19 years old Nate Dorn walked into a fertility clinic and donated. Now at 50 he has over 79 donor conceived offspring. With no kids of his own, Nate has the unique opportunity

to embrace this offbeat family or silently keep his distance.

This is the story of that choice.

-JMP