Filling in the Blanks (2023)
Directed by Jon Baime
Written by Jon Baime
Starring Jon Baime, Phillip Schafer
Release Date August 15th, 2023
Published August 14th, 2023
Who are you? What makes you, you? Is it your name? Your parents? Your genetic makeup? What do you know about you for sure. An in-built anxiety that many have is related to the fact that, though, obviously, we were there when were born, we didn't start developing and saving memories for several more years. We are entirely reliant upon our parents and other family members, to piece together the portions of our childhood where we were not yet fully developed enough to remember anything. That's a big deal, not having those memories can have a profound long term effects.
Imagine if you had the building blocks of your own life toppled by a secret from before you had awareness enough to know what happened? All that you have relied on your parents, grandparents, or siblings to recall for you was a lie. Foundational truths about who you are can be brushed away by a breeze when a major lie is revealed. Case in point, documentary filmmaker Jon Baime. He has first hand experience of having the formative years of life explode before his eyes. Jon took a DNA test and found out that his father is not his biological father.
All those years of formative memories, questions about why his brothers don't look like brothers. Questions about his mother's experience of childbirth, about whether or not he can trust anything his parents have ever told him in his more than 50 years on Earth is now in question. Jon's brothers are also not biologically related to their father. The oldest of the siblings also seeks out his bio-family while Jon finds himself welcomed by half-siblings and cousins that he never knew existed. He even finds his biological father is a man named Hesh, who also welcomes Jon like family.
Find my full length review at Humans.Media
