Netflix’s ‘Our Father’ Is an Unsettling Documentary

Charleen Darra, Photographer

 Netflix has always been known for their shows. From releasing documentaries to action movies, Netflix has everything. Recently Netflix released a documentary called “Our Father.” It is a scary but an amazing show. 

   “Our Father” is an hour and 37 minutes long documentary that shares a terrifying story of a fertility doctor impregnating woman with his own sperm without their consent. Crazy right! Even crazier was that this man had a wife with kids and he wanted more.

      The show starts with a determined woman, Jacoba Ballard, who was interested in finding her family ancestry. She was always curious because she was a blond blue eyed girl with pale skin, but the rest of her family had olive skin with brunette hair and brown eyes. Now, at that time, 23 and Me was a famous company who helped people who wanted to find their other family members or learn where their ancestors came from. Jacoba took the test and waited a month for the test to arrive and it did. The news came as a shock to her because not only did she find a sibling, she found eight. 

     These women had struggled with fertility for a long time and they came to Donald Cline, thinking that he would be able to help them, but in the end it was all a lie. Can it get any worse?

      Not only did this news ruin the siblings’ lives but also their parents’ lives too. As the movie continues, more and more siblings come out and share their stories and their concerns. Some had expressed hatred towards him and confusion on how they were so different from their own families. 

    “It was absolutely wrong from the beginning.” Jacoba stated. Dr. Cline ended up having more children than expected. 96 to be exact. Then continued to threaten those who exposed him by slashing their tries or by telling people to go after them because as he states, it will ruin his whole life and it will injure his wife and kids’ lives too. This true story mainly focuses on Cline’s past, but the victims also get some recognition. Till this day, there are people who still back him up and believe that he is a good man. 

    When finishing this documentary show, I felt disgusted and downhearted for all those men and women who went through this believing that the father was actually their father. What to call this man? evil, sickening.

     Anyone who watches the documentary should prepare to be extremely unsettled and horrified by Dr. Donald Cline’s actions.