Halfsiblings (WT)

Logline

After a DNA test, a filmmaker meets second cousins who share 25 percent of her DNA. Neither she, her mother nor the cousins knew the others existed.

Synopsis

Years ago, filmmaker Michaela Kobsa-Mark took a DNA test. Among more than 1,500 relatives in the database, her closest matches were a growing group of second cousins she had never heard of. When her mother took the same test, she noticed something strange: these cousins all share about 25 percent of their DNA with each other. They are half siblings, all around thirty and all from the New York area.

Only one of them knew what had happened. Their biological father is an anonymous sperm donor, and he is a relative of Michaela's own family. The half siblings first found each other online and built ever more complicated theories to explain their results, some holding on to the family stories they grew up with rather than accept what the test was telling them.

The film follows the half siblings and their biological father as they meet, some of them for the first time. As niece and cousin, the filmmaker is part of the story she is documenting. What does it mean to share DNA with strangers, and how much does it decide what a family is?

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