“Found,” a new documentary

I’m always excited when the subject of adoption is featured in a movie, documentary or book. And that includes Found, a new documentary about three teenagers adopted from China who discover they’re cousins through DNA testing. Chloe, Sadie and Lily travel together to China in search of their roots and the film follows their journey. The documentary is available now on Netflix. I watched the trailer and it looks amazing! A review is below, along with a link to the trailer. Mateo and I will watch tonight and I’ll let you know our impressions. As a side note: Watching films about adoption with our kids opens the door to conversations/questions/ opinions about adoption. I know you know this! I’ll never forget one summer Mateo and I were in Antigua, Guatemala–I can’t remember where Olivia was???–and we sat with my laptop in the kitchen of our rental apartment and watched Finding Oscar, a documentary about a survivor of the Dos Erres massacre during the Guatemalan civil war. Watching together in that small confined space, in the country where the action took place, was so powerful. Mateo loves history, anyway, and the film really sparked his interest in the Guatemalan conflict in a way nothing else had before. So two films worth watching: Found and Finding Oscar. xoxo Trailer for Found Review of Found in Chicago Tribune Trailer for Finding Oscar

Blue Bayou, film about Korean American adoptee

I’m posting here the NPR review of Blue Bayou, the story of a Korean American adoptee who faces deportation. Filmmaker Justin Chon, who is not himself adopted, has said he was inspired by the case of Adam Crapser, the Korean American adoptee who had run-ins with the law, lacked legal citizenship papers and was deported. I haven’t yet seen the film but hope to watch soon. And will we ever get back into movie theaters? Right now, I can’t imagine it. Sitting inside an enclosed space with other people, who may or may not be wearing masks. I’ll wait for Blue Bayou to arrive on cable, which we now have after decades of not having. The pandemic did that. Olivia’s at college and so far, so good. After a wonderful, eventful summer, I’m trying to get back to some kind of writing routine. Everyone is different and I’m a person who needs silence and routine, none of which I’ve had in a very long time. But Mateo is back at in-person school and I’m tackling a few home projects that have been hanging over me. I need to clear up head space for thinking. xoxo