Found in China
by Carolyn Stanek
Since the early ’90s, Americans have adopted nearly 70,000 Chinese children. With thousands of them now at an age to appreciate returning to the homeland, heritage tours have brought adoptees and their families to China, presenting an unequaled opportunity for bonding and sharing identity issues. “Found in China” follows six Midwestern families as they observe contemporary trends and ancient Asian traditions in both urban and rural contexts.
The 80-minute documentary focuses on the 9- to 13-year-old girls and how they attempt to fit together the puzzle pieces of their pasts.
“Found in China” captures the spontaneity of the children seeing China for the first time since leaving the country as infants or toddlers. The documentary reveals their thoughts about their orphanages, caregivers and the foster families.
The possibilities of searching for birthparents is explored by tour participants, with insights from older Korean adoptees and adoption specialists including Sara Dorow, PhD, best known for her book, “When You Were Born in China.”
Struggle For Identity (Special Edition)
by Deborah C. Hoard
Issues in Transracial Adoption. Adoptees discuss their experiences growing up in transracial adoptive families. They delve into complex issues such as confronting stereotypes and racism, fitting in with their culture of origin, learning to define themselves in terms of race and culture, transracialization, and creating multicultural familes. The compelling voices of experience are touching and often brutally honest in their observations. Widely considered the definitive video on the subject, Struggle for Identity has been incorporated into training and recruitment programs across the world. This DVD includes public performance rights.
- Dr. John W. Raible, a transracial adoptee educator and activist featured in this film, has a blog. Read Dr. John W. Raible’s Blog>>
Who Are The DeBolts? (And Where Did They Get 19 Kids?)
by John Korty
An Academy Award® winner for Best Documentary Feature and wildly popular upon its initial release, WHO ARE THE DEBOLTS? takes an intimate peek into the world of one extraordinary family that tackles adversity with compassion, joy, and perseverance.
Not only do parents Bob and Dorothy have six kids from previous marriages, they have also opened up their hearts and home to thirteen disadvantaged and handicapped children. What results is an amazing mix of diversity: they’ve taken in victims of the Vietnam War, a blind American boy, and a black girl born without limbs. Never sentimental, the film treats this multiethnic cast of kids as heroes who belie the stereotype of the handicapped. They go to school, do chores, and “hang out” while simultaneously navigating the difficulties of their disabilities. The story continues with the follow-up film STEPPIN’ OUT WITH THE DEBOLTS, catching up with the family five years later as the kids grapple with adolescence.
- The DeBolts have a website. Find out more about this amazing family>>
Crossing Chasms
by Jennifer Arndt
(From Amazon.com) Adoptee and recent communications school graduate Jennifer Arndt documented her search for her Korean birth parents, and incorporated the stories of a half-dozen other Korean adoptees in various stages of their own inquiries. While often amateurish, this 83-minute film provides useful insight into the particulars of Korean adoption. Arndt’s on-camera narration and introduction of fellow adoptees can prove distracting, but when her actual search begins, about halfway through the film, she manages to create suspense and hope for both her and her possible biological family. The other adoptees run the gamut from a contented man who grew up in the Netherlands in a family that included some of his bi ological siblings to a restless woman adopted by an American-born father and Japanese-born mother, who failed to educate her about her Korean identity. The question of “How Korean Am I?” is pondered upon (and sometimes answered) throughout the documentary, making it a particularly valuable tool for those who are part of international or interracial adoptions.
The Red String
by Elizabeth Pearson
A baby girl is relinquished by her birth parents in China; she is adopted by an unmarried woman in the United States. What then? This documentary film takes an intimate look at how four mother-daughter pairs create and weave together culture, heritage and tradition in their families. “The Red String” was selected and broadcast on PBS television (KQED, San Francisco).
Play & Learn CHINESE with Mei Mei Vol. 1
by Mei Mei Hu
This is the first and most popular video in our language series for children, a fun and easy way to begin learning Mandarin Chinese! Mei Mei Hu uses her proven teaching techniques to introduce basic Chinese through songs, movement and repetition. Children will begin speaking and singing Chinese naturally as they watch it over and over! Topics presented are: Numbers, Parts of the Body, Actions, Games, Greetings, Family, Names, Ages and Songs. This video is suitable for children of all ages, but especially suited to the 3-8 year-old group.
- Find out more about the Mei Mei & Me series of videos at MeiMeiandMe.com>>
Daughter From Danang
by Gail Dolgin
A mix of epic history and intimate family portrait, Daughter from Danang follows the reunion of a Tennessee woman, Heidi, with her Vietnamese mother and siblings after 22 years. Shipped to the U.S. in the waning days of the Vietnam war, Heidi–formerly Mai Thi Hiep–was the daughter of a white American soldier and a Danang woman abandoned by her Viet Cong husband. Fearing reprisals against Amerasian children, Hiep’s mother, despite unbearable pain, gave Hiep to an adoption agency. Raised by an abusive woman in Pulaski (birthplace of the KKK), Hiep/Heidi kept her full heritage secret. This episode of PBS’s American Experience follows Heidi’s journey home: There is sorrow, joy, and relief, of course, but also a slow-brewing uneasiness as cultures collide. As raw expectations of her impoverished, Third World family begin to grate on Heidi, the burden of carrying two national destinies becomes comically and tragically oversized in the poor woman’s shoes.
National Geographic - China’s Lost Girls
by Allen Myers, hosted by Lisa Ling
(From the New York Times) In the 1980s, as China’s population continued to rise at an alarming rate in a politically and economically precarious environment, the nation’s leaders mandated a “one child policy,” stipulating that married couples could only legally have a single offspring. In China, cultural and social traditions make boys more desirable than girls to most families, leading to a tragic phenomenon of thousands of female babies being either abandoned or put up for adoption by parents hoping for a male. National Geographic: China’s Lost Girls is a documentary hosted by Lisa Ling which examines China’s controversial policy, the nation’s population crisis, and several American families who have traveled to China in hopes of adopting little girls in need.
Stolen Ground
by Lee Mun Wah
This film is about six Asian American men who struggle against racism and their anguish and pain at the trauma of assimilation towards themselves and their families. A must-see film for those striving to better understand the "model minority" and the pressures of blending into the American culture.
- StirFry Films also sells accompanying film guides and other resources in their store: StirFryFilms.com >>
Color of Fear
by Lee Mun Wah
The Color of Fear is an insightful, groundbreaking film about the state of race relations in America as seen through the eyes of eight North American men of Asian, European, Latino and African descent. In a series of intelligent, emotional and dramatic confrontations the men reveal the pain and scars that racism has caused them. What emerges is a deeper sense of understanding and trust. This is the dialogue most of us fear, but hope will happen sometime in our lifetime.
- StirFry Films also sells accompanying film guides and other resources in their store: StirFryFilms.com >>
First Person Plural
by Deann Borshay Liem
In 1966, Deann Borshay Liem was adopted by an American family and was sent from Korea to her new home. Growing up in California, the memory of her birth family was nearly obliterated until recurring dreams lead Borshay Liem to discover the truth: her Korean mother was very much alive. Bravely uniting her biological and adoptive families, Borshay Liem's heartfelt journey makes First Person Plural a poignant essay on family, loss, and the reconciling of two identities.
- Visit the film's website at PBS.org: P.O.V. - First Person Plural >>
FILMS TO WATCH OUT FOR
The following films have recently been released, or will be released this year.
Forget The Past
by Sarah Brandt Talreja
A non- traditional documentary which explores the issues of local and international Indian adoption through the eyes of various children. These children all live in Mumbai Orphanages: Bal Vikas and Shree Manav Seva Sangh. This documentary gives voice to individual stories focusing on couples residing in Denmark, India, and the United States.
Going Home
by Jason Hoffman
In the summer of 2007, five students travelled to South Korea to document a life changing venture. Going Home: Identities of the Modern Age will be a vehicle for exploration of the story of one transracial adoptee, his lifestyle and his journey to discover his birth parents. This endeavor is in affiliation with Emerson College as an entirely student-run Bachelor of Fine Arts Project.