Private Project

Data Mining the Deceased: Ancestry and the Business of Family

“Data Mining the Deceased” prods the industry behind the exponential intensity in genealogy. What are the motivations of the key players and how are their ambitions affecting the millions of North Americans who are searching for answers?

  • Julia Creet
    Director
    MUM
  • Julia Creet
    Writer
    Director: MUM; Writer: Guise
  • Andrew Nisker
    Writer
    Director: Garbage, Chemerical, Orange Witness, The Dark Side of the Chew
  • Dennis Day
    Writer
    Director: It Never Really Happened, Life #2, Neurotics Anonymous, This Narrative is Killing Me
  • Julia Creet
    Producer
    MUM
  • Julia Creet, Steven Pinker, Alondra Nelson
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    56 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    September 1, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    200,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada, Iceland, United Kingdom, United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • TVO (TV Ontario)
    Toronto
    Canada
    February 1, 2017
    World Broadcast Premiere
  • Ethnografilm Festival
    Paris
    France
    April 11, 2017
    European Premiere
  • DOCUTAH
    St. George, Utah
    United States
    September 6, 2017
    United States Premiere
  • Bay Street Film Festival
    Thunder Bay, Ontario
    Canada
    September 17, 2017
    People's Choice Award
Distribution Information
  • Vtape
    Country: Canada
  • FLAME Distribution
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Julia Creet

Julia Creet is a Professor of English and an accidental documentarian who teaches literary non-fiction, satire and memory studies at York University in Toronto, Canada. Her previous documentary, "MUM (2008, 38 mins), is the story of a holocaust survivor who tried to forget. She has published widely in the areas of memory studies, Holocaust literature and sexuality studies.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Producing "MUM: a story of silence" immersed me in the world of family history. After a decade of digging around in secrets and archives, I realized that I was part of a zeitgeist. Family history and genealogy had become big business driven by religious doctrine, profitable online databases and the value of amassing DNA samples. I decided to take another journey to understand the motivations of individuals and industry stakeholders including the Mormon Church, Ancestry.com, and Iceland's DeCode genetics.