Iron Family Is The Moviegoing Experience of Two Lifetimes

In 2008, the monolithic Marvel Cinematic Universe was launched with the release of Iron Man, making Jon Favreau a major Hollywood player. Watch out, Jon, because documentary filmmaker Patrick Longstreth is coming to Slamdance 2022 with a movie about an entire Iron Family.  

Iron Family is the story of Jazmine Faries, a 32-year-old woman with Down syndrome. Jazmine loves soap operas and Barbie dolls. For the past five summers, her family has performed original stageplays of The Double Life, Jazmine’s alternate universe take on her life story. The small, loyal audience in the town of Iron River in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has followed the tale of Jazmine’s struggles to balance her career as a fashion designer with her sometimes rocky marriage to Matthew McConaughey for five seasons now. Iron Family captures the making of season six from rehearsals through performance. The often chaotic process of putting together a production with very limited resources served to strengthen the bonds between Jazmine, her mother, Kate German, and her brother, Chad Faries, who plays the role of Matthew and is a driving force behind the production.

“Chad was aware that I had made some short films,” Longstreth says. Chad Faries and Patrick Longstreth were friendly acquaintances living in Savannah, Georgia, when Chad approached the filmmaker about the idea of chronicling Jazmine’s story. ”I thought we would make a short film, but after meeting Jazmine I knew right away we would make this into a longer film,” Longstreth explains. “My wife and I filmed for seven days originally, and then decided to go back to Iron River several times over the course of the year until we felt like we had a feature story that we were able to tell.”

“I was confident that we would get something. I didn’t have to do much convincing—he figured it out on his own.”

Chad Faries has his own struggle with substance abuse and was in adolescent treatment for addiction when his sister was just two years old. Chad’s love for Jazmine has been a factor in his staying sober ever since, and everything he does, including obtaining multiple college degrees and writing a memoir of his life. When Chad met Longstreth, he knew he had a story for the director to tell. “When I approached Pat, all I wanted him to do was just to at the very least film this, because I knew that there was some magic in that process,” Chad says. “I was confident that we would get something. I didn’t have to do much convincing—he figured it out on his own.”

For Jazmine Faries, having Longstreth make Iron Family was a chance not just to share her story with the world, but to introduce audiences to the people and places that meant the most to her. “It wasn’t just me,” Jazmine says. “I wanted him to capture the essence and the beauty of Iron River … and I love it.”

The idea of sharing one’s artistic vision and the most intimate details about who you are may seem like a daunting prospect. Iron Family portrays not only Jazmine’s pursuit of a creative outlet, but her frustrations, loneliness and her desire for a romantic partner. 

“I wanted him to capture the essence and the beauty of Iron River … and I love it.”

It’s easy to label Iron Family as a story of Jazmine’s creativity and bravery, but she sees the film as being something more simple and ultimately more profound: “Love and dreams,” she says. “I think what inspires me the most is my mom. She’s my everything, and I love her for that. She’s always been there for me no matter what.” Jazmine’ Faries’ mother, Kate German, once lived a nomadic lifestyle that had her following love interests around the country in hopes of a better life. Now surrounded by her sisters and extended family in Iron River, Kate German cares for her daughter, Jazmine Faries, while her son, Chad Faries, looks in on them, encouraging his mother to maintain her health and counseling her through her own struggle with addiction.

For Chad Faries, sharing the story of their family on film just felt like the right thing to do.  “My family has always been really open about who they are,” Chad says. “I don’t think there’s a lot of secrets. We know that we’ve struggled—some things we’ve been successful in dealing with, and other things, not.” 

Iron Family is a documentary that inspires us to reflect on our own triumphs and challenges through the story of the Faries clan and asks a simple question, what am I doing with my life? Jazmine Faries is doing everything she can with not one life, but two, and she’s an unforgettable personality that audiences will take with them wherever they go.