It shouldn't surprise you that somebody who is out looking for "weird stories that connect and resonate" would direct DAD GENES (2026), the film about a sperm donor meeting his biological children. Craig Downing has been around the world looking for great stories and when he finds one, he sticks to it, no matter the time it takes to tell. DAD GENES took almost 7 years from idea to festival fruition, and that's a big credit to his team. Matt Isaac did a fantastic job producing as well as developing a festival schedule -- the film had its world premiere at Dances With Films NYC -- and Sara Barger put all this together with phenomenal editing skills.

I know Sara -- she was one of the excellent instructors at my George Washington documentary film certificate program -- and the kind of teamwork that puts the three of their names together on the poster for DAD GENES is the kind of team I want to have on the show. I'll talk with Sara for the next episode.

DAD GENES is a film that's worth a close look, for what it says about American society and the tremendous team that put it together.

In this episode, Craig and I discuss:

• the crazy over half-a-decade path to making the film;
• how he got started in filmmaking -- as a kindergarten teacher! -- and then off to Latin America and Iceland filming messaging videos for non-profits;
• if people have to go the influencer router versus what he did to get started;
• what brought him to documentary?
• the story of DAD GENES and what people should expect when they watch;
• how they took seven years of footage and made it understandable;
• the improvement of his skillset as filming went on;
• the state of documentary and the quick ruintime;
• what he's working on next.

Craig's Indie Film Highlight: POW WOW (2016) dir. by Robinson Devor

Memorable Quotes:

"And Matt [the producer of DAD GENES] called me and he was like, hey Greg, do you know any directors that might be interested in working on this? And I was like, yeah, Matt, me."

"If I took a video of someone walking out of Trader Joe's with avocados, they'd be like that's a pretty good shot, Craig, whatever. But if I took the exact same context of someone walking out of a Guatemalan market with a bag of avocados, you're like, whoa, that's amazing."

"It is not necessarily just documentary, it's for me...where is the story?"

"My producer and publicist is we gotta tell 'em something about the movie or that they're not gonna know what's going on. Yeah, okay, that's fair, but don't play all the cards."

"I felt like if you watch this movie, you see the development and the maturity of my ability to make interviews happen."

"I think the runtime will be dictated by the story."

Links:

DAD GENES Website

Follow Craig Downing On Instagram