Documentary Review: 'Filling in the Blanks'

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 effect.

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.

All the while, Jon is literally losing his parents. Jon's mother is dying slowly from dementia. Jon's stern but supportive father is in failing health and may not survive the death of his wife all that long. Jon and his brothers are then presented with a decision, allow their parents to take the secret of the biological family to their graves or confront, at least their father, before both parents are gone. That's only part of the drama that unfolds in Filling in the Blanks, a thoughtful and humane documentary about the nature and formation of identity and how the building blocks of identity are often more fragile than we assume they are.

That's a lot of what I am bringing to Filling in the Blanks. The documentary itself is a little less philosophical and a great deal more emotional. Jon Baime is both director and subject and he seems dedicated to not letting the documentary become oppressive or sad. He's a gregarious man who does his best to maintain that spirit amid this grave betrayal perpetrated by the people he is supposed to be able to trust above all others. Jon has some resentment, as do his brothers, but they are not bitter or openly angry with their father. They wish their parents could have been honest with them, but Filling in the Blanks is not a movie that deep dives into negative feelings.

Rather, Filling in the Blanks has a feeling of discovery to it. Jon's shock appears to have turned into a curious bemusement with where his life and this story has taken him. There is something wholesome and unique to his meeting with his biological father Hesh. Hesh is now in his 90s but remains spry and alive as ever. He is the one who gets to reveal how Jon and his new extended family arrived here. It's a shocking and enlightening story that reveals a part of the American history of sperm donation and insemination dating back more than 60 years. It's shocking and enlightening and I won't spoil it here.

You need to see Filling in the Blanks for yourself to understand exactly how this patchwork of children became adult half-siblings. Jon's story is one of being welcomed into a brand new family while that of his older brother is a different story, one that is a little more frustrating. That said, there is plenty to be learned from everyone who gets the chance to discuss this bizarre story which plays like a distant cousin to another documentary on the nature of identity and the strange twists and turns of child birth and parentage in American history, Three Identical Strangers, an absolutely must-see documentary with a similar theme of not a similar level of shock to Filling in the Blanks. If you liked Three Identical Strangers, Filling in the Blanks is something you might also find fascinating.

Filling in the Blanks will be available for on-demand rental services on August 15th, 2023.

Find my archive of more than 20 years and nearly 2000 movie reviews at SeanattheMovies.blogspot.com. Find my modern review archive on my Vocal Profile, linked here. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean. Follow the archive blog on Twitter at SeanattheMovies. Listen to me talk about movies on the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast. If you've enjoyed what you have read, consider subscribing to my writing on Vocal. If you'd like to support my writing, you can do so by making a monthly pledge or by leaving a one time tip.

New effort: I am now accepting movie review requests via my Ko-Fi account. For a $10.00 donation, I will write about the movie of your choice. I cannot promise whether the review will be positive or negative but I will make it as entertaining and informative as possible. All donations will go to support my first book, Horror in the 90s, an expansive history and analysis of the horror genre in the pivotal years from 1990 to 1999. It's a big project and I cannot complete it without your help. I am already serializing pieces from the book at Horror.Media so you can see what you are supporting. Make a donation today via my Ko-Fi Account. Thanks!