An obsessively quirky woman towers over her family of short Italians, convinced that the roots of her family tree lead back to Vikings.
why us?
My (Lauren, the writer) experience is a jumping off point for this project. I was the Norwegian Gulliver in a family of Sicilian Lilliputians, and when I asked my parents why they told me, “You’re crazy, there’s nothing to see here!” Then my grandfather, not knowing I was DC, found an article to explain the situation: “The Vikings invaded Sicily 1000 years ago.” For this story I imagined: What if I chose to go all-in on this theory and being a Viking became my identity. That’s where the main character Marie was born.
Growing up people would see me with my family and ask: Was I the family friend? I learned to dissociate, perhaps too well, because my parents brought me for testing at a deaf school. I was fine but they looked at me and asked, “Is she adopted?” The disconnection led to anxiety and depression, many things too sad to put in a comedy film pitch, and now, the worst of all, I’m a comedian. We hope to encourage people to be honest with children about their origins.
This film speaks to the other outcast misfit weirdos who feel like they don't fit. I get you!
Why now?
In the United States there are no laws requiring parents to tell children the truth, nor restricting how many times someone can donate gametes. There is also no official way for donors to update medical information, nor to connect half-siblings with each other. Many donors lie on their applications without consequence. (My friend wrote “Harvard” when he worked at Dollar Tree.) No data exists on how the offspring of assisted reproduction fare, because once we’re born there is not a profit incentive to collect data on our well being.
Stories like mine will only become more common:
Donor-conceived advocacy groups call for legislation, like at a 2019 UN Convention, but the multi-billion dollar fertility industry fights their attempts.
Rising infertility is increasing and more people use donor gametes. Each year tens of thousands of donor kids are created in the United States. Many parents do not plan on telling the donor kids the truth of their conception.
Technology has created more ways to find sperm via matching apps, Facebook groups, and TikTok(!) videos.
More people are doing DNA tests and finding out the truth of their genetic origins and seeking answers.
And no one is asking: how are the DC kids doing?