Get tickets for our Festival Premiere - at Dances With Films - Hollywood, June 21, 5PM PT
Fortunate Sons
A feature documentary
An American journey about friendship, life, loss, and renewal.
They entered the 7th grade of an all-male, military school for the sons of Los Angeles elite in the cultural watershed year of 1968 - their lives, friendships, and personal challenges provide a remarkable lens through which to explore 60 years of culture, masculinity, and seismic social change.
Are you a husband, father, brother, son? Or, do you have one?
Fortunate Sons is essential viewing - resonating with our developing national conversation about the mental health of boys and men, and the power of connection and vulnerability.
The Story
In 1968 – while The Beatles rocked a generation, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy shocked the nation – seventy-two 12 year-old boys entered 7th grade at the elite, all-male, military Harvard School in Los Angeles - the young men of the baby boom generation being groomed to lead American society.
These are the real-life stories of American men who grew up together and now, as they prepare to celebrate their 50th high school reunion, lean into the truths of their journeys with humor and vulnerability.
Fortunate Sons explores the challenges that all Americans have confronted as the world around them changed more rapidly and in more ways than anyone expected.
Love and loss.
Harmony and dysfunction.
Challenges and successes.
Pain and healing.
Watch the Trailer
Status
Festival premiere.
Fortunate Sons will have it's festival premiere as an Official Competition selection in the Dances With Films festival on June 21, 2025 at 5PM in Hollywood, CA. Click here to get tickets!
Commercial distribution.
We're working on a combination of traditional broadcast/streaming distribution with a grass-roots Impact Campaign that uses the film to spark conversations about the healing power of connection and vulnerability, in partnership with schools, organizations and companies across the country.
We'll post additional news and updates on this site, as they happen.
Project History
Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentarian Peter Jones and producer John Manulis, together with filmmaker classmates David Rosemont and Scott Shepherd, launched this project after our high school class began connecting on Zoom in the early, lonely days of the pandemic.
Additional classmates stepped up to support the project with early "angel" funding for production, archival research, and editing. Then, acclaimed film professionals, editor David Jakubovic, and composer Earl Rose, committed themselves to the project.
After almost 5 years of class Zooms, dozens of individual interviews, deep dives into archival and historical material, a year and a half of editing and post-production, and with the support of a remarkable village of investors and contributors, we completed the movie.
Reactions
It's been particularly gratifying to see how Fortunate Sons resonates across generations and demographics - it's really universal stuff: emotional, dramatic, funny, inspiring, and thought-provoking.
You can see a more extensive list of reactions on the Testimonials page.
STEVE ONEY
Author, "On Air"
Brilliant....wonderful and profound. Every minute of the film is engaging. I was delighted, moved, and crying by the end.
RICHARD BASKIN
Composer, Songwriter
It's a fascinating story - emotional, dramatic and totally universal. A wonderful film.
SUSAN REED
Magazine editor and journalist
An extraordinary, fascinating, and moving film. I loved it, from beginning to end.
Spread the Word!
Join our email list and tell your family and friends about Fortunate Sons -- support our impact campaign for mental health and the power of connection and vulnerability.
Together, we can make a difference
🙏🏼.
