Horizon
tells the extraordinary story of the world’s first and only Genius Sperm
Bank. It is the curious tale of an American millionaire optometrist called
Robert Graham and his dream to save humanity, by using the sperm of clever
men to breed highly intelligent children.

Featuring
veteran US
actor Brian Green as Robert Graham and using Graham’s own documented words
(“we don’t want to waste genius sperm on morons!”), this intriguingstory is told
through the eyes of the people who knew the man and used his bank.

We
meet some of the 200 children that were conceived using the genius sperm, the
desperate families that ‘home basted’, the donors that Graham asked to
masturbate for him and the devoted staff that helped realise his vision.

Horizon tells the curious tale of Robert Klark Graham, an
American millionaire optometrist who wanted to save humanity, using the sperm
of clever men to breed high intelligence. He set up the world’s first and
only Repository for Germinal Choice, AKA the Genius Sperm Bank, by asking
clever men to masturbate for him.

Brought to life by veteran US actor Brian Green, the film
begins in the 1960s, where Robert Graham had a vision. He felt that "retrograde humans" were
breeding unchecked, causing the evolutionary regression of mankind. He
wanted to reverse this trend and bring thousands of geniuses into the world,
geniuses fathered by the most brilliant minds.

In the late 1970s, with the help of expert sperm banker,
Steve Broder, Graham secretly set up his Repository for Germinal Choice using
an underground bunker in the backyard of his ranch in San Diego. He sought
the cleverest sperm he could get his hands on and so asked Nobel Laureates for a donation. It wasn’t
long before LA Times Journalist Edwin Chen sniffed out the clandestine sperm
bank, and on March 2nd 1980, exposed the 73-year-old tycoon’s
controversial project to the world. Nobel Prize winner and notorious racist
William Shockley was also outed as a donor to the bank, and Graham got
slammed. Accused of being a Nazi, his other donors left him and his dream was
all but destroyed. Yet still the women came flocking.

Graham enlisted the help of Vietnam draft-dodger and avid
dog breeder Paul Smith to source new donors, and ‘fairy godmother’ Julianna
McKillop to man the phones and help matchmake recipients to donors. He came
up with the unique concept of a donor catalogue, where donors’ hobbies and
skills were listed alongside their bodily attributes. Sperm banking had never
seen the like, where recipients could choose a donor who characteristics they
liked. Three families that went to Graham’s sperm bank tell their story.
Adrienne and David Ramm from New York, Lisa Zerr from Colorado and Andrea and
Tom Gronwall from California. They tell of their desperation, of finding the
genius sperm bank, and the trials of home basting.

In April 1982, the bank’s first birth was announced, but
sadly the baby’s parents had been previously convicted of child abuse, which
didn’t go down well. Then in August, psychologist Dr Afton Blake gave birth
to a gifted child called Doron – Graham finally had his poster boy.

Over its 20 years of operation, Graham’s Repository was
beset by problems, not least, there was never enough sperm. Graham contacted
high achievers personally, seeking donations. Donor Jim Bidlack recounts how,
over dinner, Graham invited him back to his hotel room to provide a donation
there and then. Much like a date, Jim was worried he might not be able to
perform, but having got comfy in the bathroom, he was able to provide a
specimen.

It was on a donor recruitment expedition in February 1997
that Graham, now 90 years old, met his death. Slipping in his hotel bathtub,
Graham was knocked unconscious and drowned. His Repository closed two years
later, yet Graham left behind him a unique legacy. He changed the face of
modern sperm banking, with the innovation of the donor catalogue and the
ability for clients to choose donors. He was also ultimately responsible for
the birth of 217 children. We meet Doron Blake now aged 23, plus Courtney
Ramm, Jesse Gronwall, Paisley and Stirling Zerr. This bunch are all
intelligent, but as most Repository children remain anonymous, no one will
ever be able to test to see whether Graham’s experiment to breed intelligent
kids using clever sperm really worked or not.