Fly over the small rural town of Abbotsford, British Columbia, where an angry crowd gathers before an unkept home. Signs hoisted high say “Protect Our Children!” and “No Support for Pedophiles”.

Dr. James Cantor Dr. James Cantor

Kim Iverson leads an eerie demonstration. She’s a mother of two who cannot let her children play in the front yard without the lingering sensation that they are being watched. Today she confronts her nightmare, and uses a loud speaker to torment the convicted sex offender confined under house arrest. Inside his home, he wears an ankle bracelet that tracks his every move. To Kim, that is not enough. She’ll do whatever it takes to see three time offender James Conway relocated.

In the suburbs of Minnesota, we meet Bob Radke, an ex-U.S. marine from Minnesota who was jailed for possessing pictures of children pornography. And Edward Chambers, who had to change his identity after he decided to confide his secret to wrong person. Both men are pedophiles, but claim to have never touched a child. Still they live lives torn apart by public stigma, and for a good reason, have kept their heads low — until now.

Review from the Toronto Star: I, Pedophile dares to empathize

Demystifying the cause of pedophilia is charismatic expert Dr. James Cantor. Years of research and MRI scans have led Dr. Cantor to his groundbreaking yet controversial hypothesis that pedophilia is caused by a developmental disorder, resulting in a literal cross-wiring in the brain.

We follow Dr. Cantor to Germany, where Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (Dark Field) is the only facility in the world offering truly anonymous treatment for people attracted to children. Its founder, Dr. Klaus Michael Beier, reflects on the overwhelming turnout to the program, their expansion to multiple locations throughout Germany, and that, by Dunkelfeld’s estimates, one out of a hundred men are born pedophiles. Attending Dunkelfeld therapy sessions, a former school teacher named Anton walks out a changed man after learning to empathize with his victim, an 11-year-old girl.

Enter the underground world of pedophiles, and the maverick doctors who fight on their behalf. Many of the characters appear as themselves, but due to the inherent danger of coming out as a pedophile, the film uses cinematic re-creations to illustrate the stories of key activists whose choose to stay hidden in the shadows.