POV Adoption Stories on PBS Tonight: Off and Running
Tonight, the second film in the POV series on adoption, Off and Running, will debut on PBS. It’s a powerful film about an amazing young woman who wants very much to find out about her biological family and her struggle is set against the backdrop of being a teenager and trying to find out who she is on so many levels.
I can relate to so much of what Avery was going through, since I spent time trying to find my birth mother, too. And like Avery, my experience doing it wasn’t very satisfying.
Avery found her birth mother but never got the answers she was looking for; I looked for but never found my birth mother, so my questions weren’t answered, either. And amazingly, even though we are from different eras, Avery and I, both of our adoption agencies operated the same way: both parties looking for information about each other had to write letters to that effect and send them to the agency, which would then match them by hand and exchange them. So low-tech!
Of course, since Avery is a black woman who was adopted by white, Jewish Lesbians, I can’t begin to relate to that part of her life. She’s also so much more poised than I am even now, much less than I was as a teenager. She’s an accomplished, articulate, bright young woman and I ache for her as she goes through what she does in the film.
The film gives impression that she has come out the other end of the experience as it closes, and I have to say I am thrilled to think it’s true. I wouldn’t want to see her derailed from her path. This woman will go far.
The film also “stars” her two brothers, the eldest of whom is also an amazingly poised and articulate person, and the younger of whom is an adorable Korean adoptee who clearly adores Avery. They’ve been raised well, moms!
In a very interesting coincidence, Avery consults a transracial adoption specialist who also appears in the first film in the series, which I reviewed last week, Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy.
I highly recommend the film, which speaks to the nature of identity whether you are adopted or not. And where else could you see a story like this except PBS? (Plug, plug.) If it were on Broadcast TV, it’d be a sitcom.
POV Adoption Stories: Off and Running premiering September 7th on PBS.