The man with 1000 childrenDirected by Josh Allott, it documents the trail of children created by prolific Dutch sperm donor Jonathan Jacob Meijer, and the families who feel Meijer lied to them about how prolific a donor he really was.
THE MAN WITH 1000 SONS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening shot: A shot of a baby. A narrator tells us that “the average couple has 2.3 children over their lifetime, but one couple is believed to have had more than 40.” As we zoom out and see dozens of babies, the narrator says that “there is a man alive today who may have fathered more than 1,000 children.”
The essence: The filmmakers begin in Meijer’s home country of the Netherlands, speaking to couples and single mothers who turned to a sperm donor because they were having trouble conceiving or simply needed to find a donor. Meijer, a YouTube influencer who traveled the world for his videos, was charming and attractive, with long, wavy blond hair. He often made his donations in private, prearranged with the parents-to-be. He offered to donate the sperm “naturally” (i.e., through intercourse), and some clients took him up on the offer, but most asked him to leave a sample and inseminated themselves at home (or in the car, as one mother-to-be recalled).
Meijer also donated to sperm banks across the Netherlands, against the country’s rules limiting the number of sperm banks a man can work with. There are also supposed to be limits on how many children a donor can father, the logic being that the more people with a man’s DNA there are, the more likely it is that two people will have a sexual relationship and have children in the future without knowing they are half-siblings (a concept called consanguinity, according to a fertility doctor interviewed by the filmmakers).
Meijer told the families interviewed that he had fathered about 25 children, but through research and discussion in a Facebook group full of parents who used his DNA, he may have fathered more than 100 children in the Netherlands alone. But remember, he’s a world traveler, and the show follows his trail to Australia and talks to parents there who used his DNA to conceive.
What shows will it remind you of? The man with 1000 children It is made by the same filmmakers as the movie. Lover, stalker, murdererIt uses many of the same narrative devices as the film, including real people taking part in the story doing reenactments. Lance Oppenheim’s standout documentary, SPERM WORLDlooks at the topic from a completely different perspective.
Our opinion: There is no doubt that what Meijer was doing with his sperm donations has negative ramifications, and the filmmakers at… The man with 1000 children He lied to families to get them to trust him, and by having more children than Dutch law allows, there is a greater chance of inbreeding.
The families interviewed are outraged that Meijer lied to them and that their children may have dozens of half-siblings around them. In the case of one parent, she knew someone who also used a sperm donor and they both ended up using Meijer.
But one of the big problems with this documentary is that we know nothing about Meijer himself, as he refused to participate. However, has spoken about The documentary says the filmmakers deliberately sought out the few families angry with him among the more than 500 (!) who received his sperm. The filmmakers refute this, saying they have spoken to dozens of families who were angry with Meijer’s conduct and petitioned courts in their various countries to stop donating.
It seems like the filmmakers are leaning too heavily on the speculative parts of Meijer’s story without addressing the facts they actually know. Even in calling the series The man with 1000 children It is purely speculative; it is an estimate based on where he has traveled and reports of where he made donations.
One of the things we wanted to know more about is the real scientific and emotional implications of Meijer’s activity. What are the real chances of inbreeding occurring, especially in a small country like the Netherlands? Can this knowledge come at an emotional cost not only for parents, but also for children? And what can actually be done to get someone like Meijer, who doesn’t feel like he’s doing anything wrong, to straighten out?
The fact that Meijer doesn’t feel like he’s doing anything wrong also speaks to a psychological profile that desperately needs to be explored. He feels like he’s helping people form or continue their families. That kind of savior complex is something we needed to hear. He genuinely feels like he’s doing good deeds, even if the totality of what he’s doing is ultimately harmful. Maybe the other two episodes of the series will address that theme, but we have our doubts.
Sex and skin: None, apart from images of pregnant bellies in stock photos.
Parting shot: In a now-customary twist at the end of the episode, two Australian mothers sit down to talk about how they used Meijer sperm to conceive.
Sleeping Star: Suzanne and Natalie were certainly the pair of parents who spoke the most to the filmmakers. Natalie said she exclaimed, “What the hell!” when she heard about Meijer’s exploits.
Pilot’s most typical phrase: Reenactments are annoying, but if you’ve read any of our documentary series reviews, you knew we’d probably think that.
Our calling: STREAM IT. Because the series is so one-sided and speculative, The man with 1000 children It may be viewed with a certain amount of distrust, but that does not prevent us from being fascinated by the results obtained when a man feels the need to donate his sperm everywhere he can.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting, and technology, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV addict. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and elsewhere.
