Saturday, September 04, 2010

Fresh Media!

Check out new additions to the growing body of adoption-related media! Click below for music from Zara Phillips and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels (I'm Legit) and singer/songwriter Mary Gauthier(The Foundling). Also, Sony Pictures has announced the release of Mother and Child in select theaters on Mother's Day, and Jean Strauss' new documentary, For the Life of Me, has received rave reviews at film festivals.

MUSIC

The Foundling

In this, her ninth album, Mary Gauthier tells her own story of relinquishment, foster care, abandonment, reunion and rejection:

"I was born to an unwed mother and subsequently surrendered to St. Vincent's Women and Infants Asylum on Magazine Street in New Orleans, where I spent my first year. I was adopted shortly thereafter, but left my adoptive family at fifteen. I wandered for years looking for, but never quite finding a place that felt like home. I searched for, found, and was denied a meeting with my birth mother when I was 45 years old. She couldn't afford to re-open the wound she'd carried her whole life; the wound of surrendering a baby. The Foundling is my story."  Mary Gauthier  

The artist's notes explain the full spectrum of Mary's experiences and feelings leading up to and related to her search. The album was just released, and is downloadable now. Click here for details!

Click here to read a piece about The Foundling in the LA Times.  

I'm Legit

  Dubbed the new adoptee rights anthem, the new video enhances the message behind already powerful, haunting lyrics, set to the combination of Zara Phillips' alternative rock backed up by the driving rap of DMC.  Click here for more information and links, including Zara's award-winning documentary Roots Unknown.

FILM

The Kids Are All Right

This comedy, written and directed by Lisa Cholodenko, is about a lesbian couple, Jules and Nic (Julianne Moore and Annette Benning), whose donor-conceived children want to find and meet their sperm-donor father. Paul (Mark Ruffalo).  His entrance into their lives stirs up an assortment of anxieties and dysfunctional behaviors across the board, forcing them to reexamine their relationships. Strong performances by an excellent cast, but given the focus and perspective of the film, should probably have been called The Moms Are Not All Right.  The film's glaring weakness is its shallow treatment and simplistic resolution of the teens' identity questions, given that their father's anonymous seed is the sole common link which enabled them to exist as individuals and a family.     

Mother and Child

  A "must see" film that offers the most accurate depiction of core issues for the adoption triad since Secrets and Lies. After its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, Sony Pictures acquired the rights to this film about a 50 year old white woman, the daughter she surrendered at age 15, and black woman seeking to adopt a child. Powerful portrayals of a mother's unresolved grief, an adoptee's attachment, control and genetic health concerns, and a prospective adoptive mother's struggles. Stellar cast includes Naomi Watts, Annette Bening, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, and Amy Brenneman. Click here to see photos, trailers and a synopsis.

For the Life of Me

 What if, at the age of 52,  you still couldn't see your own birth certificate, know your birth identity, or know who to contact in a medical emergency?  This powerful documentary tracks the steps of Dave, a middle-aged adoptee, and others like him who are barred from knowing their roots yet press on in their quest for equal rights to their roots.  Click here for access to more information about the documentary and New York Times best-selling author Jean Strauss.  Winner of the Best Documentary Award at Los Angeles' Smogdance Film Festival, and the Sleeping Giant award at the Kent Film Festival in Connecticut.  

BOOKS



In April 1975, just before the fall of Saigon, the U.S. government launched "Operation Babylift," a highly publicized plan to evacuate nearly three thousand displaced Vietnamese children and place them with adoptive families overseas. Chaotic from start to finish, the mission gripped the world—with a traumatic plane crash, international media snapping pictures of bewildered children traveling to their new homes, and families clamoring to adopt the waifs.

 

 

Often presented as a great humanitarian effort, Operation Babylift provided an opportunity for national catharsis following the trauma of the American experience in Vietnam. Now, thirty-five years after the war ended, Dana Sachs examines this unprecedented event more carefully, revealing how a single public-policy gesture irrevocably altered thousands of lives, not always for the better. Though most of the children were orphans, many were not, and the rescue offered no possibility for families to later reunite. (Description excerpt courtesy of Amazon.com)


PRIME TIME TELEVISION

  In the award-winning AMC series Mad Men, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is the Creative Director for a hard-drinking, chain-smoking, fast-living Madison Avenue ad agency in 1960. In the first season (2007), when asked about his upbringing, he said, "Think of me as Moses. I was a baby in a basket."  Flashbacks reveal his previous name, Dick Whitman, and the fact that he believed he was a "whore child." When found by his half brother, Adam, who thought he was dead, Don tells him "my life only moves forward" and gives him $5000 to disappear and never contact him again. Don's secretary becomes pregnant by a coworker, and each episode exposes more background secrets behind what drives Don's success and addictions.       

New York adoptee and genealogist/searcher Pam Slaton, who helped DMC with his search, has announced plans to collaborate with the Oprah Winfrey Network on a search-and-reunion focused television series.  Click here to connect with Pam's website.   

 CW's critically acclaimed Life Unexpected premiered Jan. 18, 2010.  The main character, Lux (whose name means "light"), has spent her sixteen year life in foster care. Her mother relinquished her at age 16 under the belief she would be adopted, but a congenital heart condition made her difficult to adopt. Her birth father knows nothing about her until she finds him in the course of seeking emancipation from her foster parents.      

 In the coming season of HBO's True Blood series, bar owner and shapeshifter Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) will reportedly search out his roots, against the advice of his adoptive parents.  

Troy Dunn, known as The Locator , appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show May 28, 2010 and  February 18, 2010 to discuss the importance of finding closure in lost relationships.  His motto is, "You can't find peace until you find the pieces."  Dunn got started in the search and reunion business by helping his mother, an adoptee, search for her roots. 

  Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) is an aggressive young entrepreneuer among New York's young, beautiful and privileged on the CW's Gossip Girl. His life and troubled romantic relationships are haunted by the realization that he may never know who his mother is, though it's possible he may have met her without knowing it.  

ABC's Find My Family ran for a six-week initial contract at the end of 2009. The show's website said it was returning in 2010, but has vanished from abc.go.com with no further information.Find My Family co-hosts Tim Green and Lisa Joyner are both adoptees who have experienced the challenges, heartaches and joys of their own search and reunion process.
 Tim Green (photo: ABC.com)Lisa Joyner (photo: ABC.com) (photos: www.abc.go.com)


Green began the first episode by honoring his adoptive family, saying, "They will always be my parents. Always." His book, A Man and His Mother: An Adopted Son's Search, provides his candidly told personal story.     

Though not adoption-related, NBC's Who do You Think You Are? has tracked down the roots of such luminaries as Sarah Jessica Parker, Emmitt Smith, Susan Sarandon, Spike Lee, Brooke Shields, Lisa Kudrow and Matthew Broderick.  

This level of media attention can only serve to highlight the importance of truth and transparency in adoption!  

FOR MORE COMPLETE LISTINGS OF BOOKS, MUSIC, DOCUMENTARIES AND MOVIES, SEE DROPDOWN LINKS UNDER LEARN AND EXPRESSIONS.

AIS-CTC Registry

You can now join the free online AIS/CTC reunion registry directly by logging in and providing information about yourself and the person(s) you are seeking. We will never sell your information to anyone. We will only disclose your information to the person(s) you are looking for. Please note that any fields labeled "visible on your profile" are visible only to the site administrator. In order to help us minimize SPAM and computer generated messages, registration involves these steps:

1) Create a login account by providing basic information and establishing your password.You will receive an electronic response from AIS/CTC.
2) Click on the link we send from the email address you provide in order to confirm your registration. 
3) Once you confirm your registration, the registry administrator will approve and enable your account, usually within 24-48 hours. You will receive a second email from AIS/CTC informing you that your account is now active. 
4) From the AIS/CTC homepage, use your login name and password and click on the "Login" button.  You will still be on the home page, but if you scroll back down the page, you will notice a greeting with your username. Click on "My Profile" to see what you've already entered, or click on "Edit My Profile" to make changes or add more detailed information about yourself and the person(s) for whom you are searching. See our FAQ section, or contact us for more help.

By joining this registry, you certify and acknowledge that you:

  • Are over the age of 18 and are the person named as the registrant or their legal representative.

  • Consent to the release of your name and contact information in the event of a possible match.

  • Agree to hold harmless Adoptees in Search - The Colorado Triad Connection, its Board, and its members from any results, errors, omissions or failure to notify any party. Please remember to update your contact information if it changes.

  • Understand that AIS/CTC makes no guarantees regarding the outcome of any registration, search and reunion. We will do everything we can to verify matches and contact people in a timely manner.  However, because we are a volunteer organization, we operate under the constraints of certain variables and limitations.

  • Please note that this registry is limited to births, adoptions and relinquishments which took place in Colorado. See our Search links for other more comprehensive online registries.

    To begin the process, click on the following link:

By clicking here, I affirm that I understand and agree to the above terms and conditions.

Thank you for becoming part of our community!