This past weekend marked the 40th Twins Days Festival held annually in Twinsburg, Ohio. I’ve always though being a twin would be cool and had such a fascination with it that much to my older middle brother’s dismay I would sometimes tell people we were twins. (Now that we’re older he doesn’t mind since it’d make him two years younger! 🙂 ) Coincidentally a couple of  days ago I was watching the documentary AKA Dan which had an unexpected, twist related to twins.

Hip-hop artist Dan Matthews was adopted by an American couple as a baby and at age 28 decides to find his birth parents in Korea. We get to see such a personal journey as it unfolds, and it’s fascinating and poignant.

Dan seems like a friend as soon as you meet him in the documentary. He’s likable, interesting and seems like hanging out would be fun. It’s funny how documentaries about a person make you feel as if you actually know them in real life. We start off with Dan reading the letter from the adoption agency letting him know they found his parents and, oh by the way, he also has a twin brother. WUUUUTTTTT!!!!

Naturally I was fascinated by the twins featured and the relationship that developed. The documentary is short, only a four episode arc on Dramafever or Hulu. So it doesn’t delve too far into the nature versus nurture, identical twin genes information. You do get to hear from Dan and a set of twins ladies he meets at the Intercountry Adoption Convention in Seoul talk about being raised in different countries from their twins, yet discovering so many similar mannerisms and interests. One of the twin ladies was French, the other American. I would love to know more of their story. Recently I found out that they just released their own documentary called Twinsters.

How cool was it that Dan discovers his twin brother, who grew up with their biological parents in Korea, also raps. We get to hear some tracks from his album Stuntman and see Dan perform. Reality TV has led the viewing public to want to invade people’s space way too much. I found I was curious about so many more things, the aftermath of how everyone — his biological parents, sister — came to terms with the dad choosing to give one child away and keep only one because they were struggling financially. I spend a good amount of time sobbing along with the birth mom and Dan when they parted at the airport. I was invested in these people I don’t really know. I wanted to know how Dan himself is doing now and if they’ve all stayed in touch.

AKA Dan was an all too brief but good slice of life story about adoption and finding ones roots worth watching.