Mariel Carlson, University of Minnesota MSW Student and Outreach Graduate Assistant at CASCW
Laura LeBrun, MSW, University of Minnesota Graduate and Outreach Graduate Assistant at CASCW
Welcome to the Expanding Knowledge blog series! The following is an eight-week series that will feature means to enhance your child welfare work through education by non-conventional means, exploring content beyond traditional academia. We recognize that everyone learns in unique ways and thus will suggest resources from social media, books, podcasts, and more to help broaden the child welfare knowledge base and increase access to a variety of voices.
Our fifth week in Expanding Knowledge will explore visual media we have enjoyed, such as television series, movies, and documentaries. Although movies and TV series can frequently be unrealistic or “Hollywoodized” to appeal to a broader audience, we have carefully selected the following visual media for accurate portrayals or the inclusion of the adoptee perspective in their creation. Most of the media will feature stories of real people involved in the child welfare system, with the exception of one TV series that has been praised by adoptees for its sensitive story-telling. While the creators of visual media can choose to infuse their personal opinions in a film or documentary with the intention of swaying viewers’ perspectives, we have found the following media to include various valuable perspectives. At times a documentary, movie, or TV show might be advertised in an attempt to incite powerful emotions in an audience, but we invite you to approach the following media with an open mind. Even when the stories challenge our perceptions of child welfare, foster care, and adoption, we can all benefit from the narratives that ask us to reconsider our opinions and to listen to the voices of marginalized populations. It is also important to consider the lens that creators use when considering how these perspectives will influence your child welfare practice. Often, foster and adoptive parents are centered in conversations due to many factors, including age, power differentials, and perception of role. As former foster youth and adoptee voices are the center of our work, their voices should be elevated. We invite you to consider the positions, identities, and power dynamics inherent in any of the child welfare-related media you might view. Whose voice is centered? Are those with lived experience exploited or further marginalized? Below are TV shows, movies, and documentaries that we recommend you consider viewing:
1. Reckoning with the Primal Wound
Self-described as a “grassroots effort,” Reckoning with the Primal Wound is about “reckoning with relinquishment trauma and the cultural phenomenon that is author Nancy Verrier’s landmark book The Primal Wound. It is the only film about this important topic produced by an adoptee and birth mother that features Nancy herself along with psychologists David Brodzinsky and Amanda Baden.” What results from this effort is a powerful film that not only follows Rebecca Autumn Sansom’s life (in addition to her birth and adoptive mothers) but also the experiences of other adoptees in their search to fill the hole that was created by the separations from their mothers.
The film follows its opening quote, by James Gritter, well: “We must be careful not to sanitize, sentimentalize, or even glamorize the pain of adoption; it really is miserable stuff, and it is intensely personal. It is interior. The pain of adoption is not something that happens to a person; it is the person. Because the pain is so primal, it is virtually impossible to describe.” Even in a positive reunion, even in a wonderful family life, there can be an immense amount of pain from adoption, because the primal wound is one that comes with identity issues, feelings of rejection, confusion about one’s history, and more. All members of the adoption triad provide emotional labor through this film, sharing their stories in a way that can only increase our understanding of these complicated feelings. The film wonderfully weaves how important and revolutionary Verrier’s book was to adoptees through interviews with the author as well as many members of the adoptee community. It is an experience that allows the child welfare worker to see firsthand the complicated feelings behind adoption as well as removals and foster care. While the film is not yet available publicly, we want to thank Rebecca Autumn Sansom for letting us have a first look at this film and encourage you to view the trailer at this time. If you would like to explore another documentary that is mentioned in the film while you wait for the release of Reckoning with the Primal Wound, we encourage you to watch Off and Running.
2. Tough Love – documentary
The film opens with a strong message: “[In 2019,] over 250,000 children were removed from their homes and placed into foster care. In 79% of those cases, the parents were charged with neglect, not abuse.” Although the child welfare system is designed to protect children, there are often times that the system can overstep familial boundaries in a way that can feel micromanaging and unnecessary, though phrased as “tough love” to parents. This documentary highlights two instances in which the “tough love” seems to be too much and feels impossible for families to escape.
Tough Love follows two families on opposite sides of the country: Patrick Brown and his daughter, Natalya (who, at the beginning of the film, has been in foster care for one year), and Hasna (Hannah) Siddique and her children, AJ and Nia (who, at the beginning of the film, live with their paternal grandmother). Both parents get their children for weekend visits, and both parents are trying to get their families successfully discharged from Child Protective Services. As the child welfare worker knows, it is a complicated system for families to navigate; thus, it is no surprise that both parents have resources to help them work with the system. As the cases get more complex, these organizations seem vital for parental advocacy. The parents struggle with such a punitive system throughout the film. In both stories, there are many expressions of frustration. Hannah, who is pregnant, vocalizes, “My past is just haunting us…the baby has nothing to do with it.” Patrick’s legal representation is forced to advocate for him when the system gets unfair, reminding that we need to “bring the court back to safety, not about perfection.” While the journeys feel painful, the documentary offers a critical look in how the child welfare system can be unjust to families, and it is vital that any child welfare worker who works within the courts watch this film in order to critically evaluate their expectations within their practice. Tough Love can be watched on Vimeo.
3. Blood Memory
This documentary, released in 2019, is primarily narrated by Sandy White Hawk, Sicangu Lakota adoptee from the Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota. Blood Memory reflects on the cultural genocide of the boarding school era, followed by the Indian Adoption Era, which resulted in a removal of roughly one third of American Indian children. The story traces the historical and intergenerational trauma that we continue to see in the child welfare system today, despite the activism that resulted in the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978. Perspective is also provided on the high-profile case of Baby Veronica by both Sandy White Hawk as well as ICWA and Adoption Attorney Mark Fiddler, who is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa Indians. Sandy currently serves as an Indian Child Welfare consultant in Minnesota and is founder of First Nations Repatriation, a unique organization that organizes Welcome Home ceremonies and resources for First Nations peoples impacted by foster care and/or adoption, hoping to reclaim their identities and culture. A deeply moving portrait of the political turmoil surrounding ICWA and the reckoning done by Native adoptees and former foster youth, Blood Memory is an excellent resource for those seeking perspectives on ICWA, the trauma inflicted by Indian Adoption, and the healing efforts made by adult adoptees like Sandy White Hawk. This documentary can be viewed on WORLD Channel or rented or bought through the Blood Memory website.
Dawnland is another documentary to explore on the topic of the Indian Adoption Project and Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in Maine.
4. Lion
Lion is a 2016 movie based on the true story of Saroo Brierley and adapted from the autobiographical book A Long Way Home. At the age of five, Saroo was accidentally separated from his brother at a train station and winds up thousands of miles from his hometown, lost on the streets of Calcutta. Saroo is found and placed in an orphanage before being adopted by an Australian couple, Sue and John Brierley. This movie is relevant to those working in adoption and foster care due to its delicate and honest portrayal of the emotional turmoil of Saroo as an adult, searching for his mother. We find this relatable to those who describe the pain and loss felt during a birth family search and reunion. Lion can be viewed on Amazon Prime. For an interview with Saroo Brierley about his life, autobiography, and the movie’s premiere, we recommend this article.
5. This Is Us
This Is Us, a TV show on NBC, has gained popularity and praise for its semi-realistic portrayals of adoption, foster care, and the search for birth parents. While some with real experiences of these might find these storylines hard to watch, other adult adoptees and foster parents have found the show realistic in its depiction of the experiences, emotion, and trauma of the adoption and foster care world. Without spoiling the show for any current or hopeful viewers, one of the main characters has a storyline on searching for birth parents and learning the story behind their adoption. Another set of parents decides to foster a teenager. Both storylines have been praised by adult adoptees and professionals – in fact, the executive producer and co-showrunner Isaac Aptaker cited consulting with several foster care professionals and parents to learn more about the experiences of youth and families involved with the foster care system. This Is Us can be viewed on NBC and its streaming service, Peacock. For more adult adoptee perspectives on the show:
As A Black Adoptee…. Story In ‘This Is Us’ Feels Real To Me This Is Us Birth Mother Episode: A Reflection from an Adult Adoptee
This documentary film tells the story of triplet boys who were given up for adoption by their teenage birth mother and raised in three separate homes. They discovered the existence of each other at the age of 19. At first, their stardom and a newfound friendship was seen as a blessing – but their respective parents were upset at not being given the option by the adoption agency to raise all three boys as siblings in the same household. Furthermore, they discovered the dark side of the Louise Wise Adoption Agency – the psychological studies completed by Dr. Peter Neubauer which separated siblings at birth and studied their differences (nature vs. nurture). We perceived this documentary as a reminder of the many unique bonds biological families share, which cannot be broken by adoption or physical separation. The documentary can be viewed on Hulu. For further reading: The surreal, sad story behind the acclaimed new doc ‘Three Identical Strangers’
While this film is a training video, presented by the state of Washington, for non-native foster parents, there are important considerations that are made within it. It emphasizes that culture is in everything we do, including our behaviors, so foster families need to understand how important it is to ensure their foster children are exposed and enmeshed within their culture. It provides tools for foster parents in maintaining connections with family members and tribes. The standout speaker is teenager Dario Meguire, who expresses why this information is so important: “If you’re going to adopt one of our children, you really are the keeper of our history…[raising the next teller].” There will be “something else” if there is a denial of culture, but it will never fill the hole of missing culture. At only thirty minutes, this video is vital for the child welfare worker who wants to have a general introduction to the necessity of the Indian Child Welfare Act as well as get some initial ideas for how non-native foster families can help a Native child embrace their culture, history, and identity. All My Relations can be watched on YouTube.
This documentary series features Mykell and Corey, two youths, out of the 28,000 youths annually, who are about to age out of the foster care system. Although aging out may seem daunting, Mykell views it this way: “Some of my biggest battles I’ve already faced in life, so um, I’m kind of like, I’m ready for whatever life throws my way.” The three-part, thirty-minute series shows Mykell and Corey navigating housing, jobs, school, etc., realizing the many barriers and unfair stipulations that come with social systems. Knowing that they have only 60 days to use their Section 8 voucher after turning 21, the film emphasizes just how hard it can be to find a home within that timeframe – especially when one has few social supports. This docuseries is vital for the child welfare worker who wishes to understand how complicated systems can be for youths, especially those aging out of foster care. It also is important for those who do not work with older youth to understand the effects of aging out of the foster care system. The series can be viewed on YouTube at the following links: part one, part two, and part three.
The F Word is a docu-series created by a queer couple, Kristan and Nico, about their foster-to-adoption journey. Nico (they/them) previously created a documentary about transracial adoptees; they were featured in the documentary Reckoning with the Primal Wound in which they stated they learned about the adoptee experience from that documentary itself. We recommend this docu-series because it features a queer couple as foster parents – an important part of the foster care system although rarely discussed – and because of this couple’s awareness of the trauma experienced by adoptees, in particular transracial adoption. As stated in season 2, episode 5: “The grief, and often the trauma, that children suffer when they are separated from their birth parents is often invisible and goes unacknowledged. We promise to name it. We promise to talk about it, from the beginning, to help you learn to hold love and loss at the same time.” View The F Word.
10. Philomena
Philomena is a film based on the book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by Martin Sixsmith, an English journalist. Sixsmith, in real life, accompanied Philomena Lee on her journey to find her son who was adopted out at the age of three against her consent. Philomena lived in an abbey in Roscrea, Ireland, when she became pregnant as a teenage mother. At the age of 70, Philomena revealed to her family that she had given birth to a son as a teenager, and she had been unable to find him in the years since then. Sixsmith was able to unearth the story Philomena’s son, Michael Hess, and the barriers between mother and child reuniting. We consider this story an important one — although Philomena had her parental rights terminated involuntarily in the 1950s, this topic remains an important one today for birth parents forced to give up their children for adoption. Philomena can be viewed on Netflix.
Family Secrets | Birth Mothers Never Forget is a less “Hollywoodized” story of a birth mother who has given up her first-born son for adoption. It is one episode of a documentary series, “Family Secrets.”
Do you have any visual media or other resources that have been helpful to you as a child welfare professional? Please send us an email at cascw@umn.edu. The reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are expressly that of the author and are not that of the University of Minnesota, School of Social Work, or Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare.