Matt Isaac’s BIFF documentary takes a look at a new kind of fatherhood

By Charlie Bergeron

Award-winning documentary Dad Genes is coming to Buffalo this weekend. The film will be included in Buffalo International Film Festival, screening on Saturday (Oct. 10) at 4:30 p.m. at Scene One Market Arcade.

The film tells the story of Aaron Long, a man who finds out his college-era sperm bank donations have left him with dozens of family members he never knew … until the era of 23AndMe.

The film is coming to Buffalo now, and for the documentary’s producer, Matt Isaac, this is not just another film festival, but also a sort of homecoming. 

Isaac got his start in film while attending the University at Buffalo studying Studio Art and Media Study. During his time there, Isaac acted as the Film Programmer for the UB Student Film program.

Buffalo holds a special place in Isaac’s heart. When asked about his experience as a student at UB, Isaac named Sarah Elder and Tony Conrad as a professors who had an enormous impact on him. 

“Sarah Elder is really smart.” Isaac said, “Though Dad Genes is a much different movie than the ethnographic films she created, the sensitive way in which she approached her subjects is something I’ve tried to carry over into this movie.”

“Tony Conrad is someone whose energy has really stayed with me. He did so much, he was quite the Renaissance man. He had so many forms of creative output, and that’s really something that I admired.”

Elder’s Drums of Winter documentary (which she edited and co-produced and co-directed) is in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, while Conrad’s “The Flicker” is considered a groundbreaking experimental film and he was recognized as a musician, sound artist and writer. Both were longtime figures in the Media Study Department at UB,

Isaac also reflected fondly on his experiences working at both CEPA and Hallwalls.

“CEPA and Hallwalls were so formidable in my life and all the things I’ve done after [working for the galleries],” Isaac said, “Hallwalls was really scrappy, and [working there] showed me how to really get stuff done, and how you had to do crazy things [to get stuff done] sometimes!”

He also mentioned his fondness for Hallwalls’ former executive director, Ed Cardoni, who hired Isaac as the film curator when he was just 23.

After Buffalo, Isaac moved down to New York City, and he has a had a career in the film industry and scene there since.

About nine years ago, while spending some time out of New York and in Seattle, Isaac came across the main subject of Dad Genes, Aaron Long. 

Isaac encountered Long, who he described to be a bohemian artist-type at the time, at a “talent show” style party at an artists co-op where Long had been living.

Long presented, instead of an artistic talent, a PowerPoint presentation describing himself as a young man. This PowerPoint was about his time in college, when he sometimes donated sperm. The presentation went on to tell the partygoers about how he had been able to connect with some of his biological children through 23andMe. 

Not only was he letting the partygoers know about his biological children, he was also proposing a “Meet My Kids Party!” Isaac said.

Isaac was so intrigued that he ended up asking Long if he could film this process and create a documentary. Long was all in, as long as the film had some humor. 

”We really tried to add that humor, and mix a lot of tenderness in the movie too,” Isaac said, “We wanted it to be accessible for people, and people could find it entertaining, but also could talk about it.”  

The documentary has already been screened in several festivals around the country, and even internationally, and people in the audience all throughout have been able to relate to the film’s content, Isaac said.

“It’s interesting because Aaron’s particular circumstances are so incredibly unique, but people see their own families in it,” Isaac said. “After seeing the film we’ve had people who want to discuss it with us.” 

Isaac recalls a time after showing the film at a festival in Massachusetts when some audience members invited the film’s team to a nearby bar to talk about the film and share their own stories. 

When Isaac told Dad Genes director Craig Downing about his idea to make a film about Long’s story, Downing was quick to hop on the project. The two were not anticipating the story that unfolded. 

“Initially, we thought that maybe the story was just going to be this party. It’s gonna be funny, and odd, and awkward, and then they’re all gonna go home, that’s it,” Isaac said. “More and more things kept happening as filming went on …Aaron ends up going from being this bohemian guy living in an artists co-op to eventually forming a family. He has this really incredible transformation and finds his family through his own sperm donations, essentially.”

A production they initially thought would be filmed over a few weeks turned into a project they worked on for nine years. Isaac noted that they had about one hundred hours of footage, which the film’s editor, Sarah Barger, was able to edit down into about one hour. 

The film has gone on quite a tour through film festivals since its release. Dad Genes has been screened at 18 film festivals across the U.S. and made its international premiere at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece.

Dad Genes has also been honored with Best Documentary Feature Jury Award at the Atlanta Documentary Film Festival, the “Truth is Stranger than Fiction” Award at the New Jersey Documentary Film Festival, as well as winning Best Documentary at Allentown (Pa.) Film Festival. 

You can find tickets and more information about the screening here: https://www.buffalofilm.org/events/dad-genes/