PBS
Summer 2010 Press Tour
POV – At the Intersection of Identity, Race and Adoption
Cynthia Lopez, Series Vice President
“Wo Ai Ni (I Love You), Mommy”
Donna Sadowsky, Featured Participant
“Off and Running”
Avery Brooks Klein-Cloud, Featured Participant
“In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee”
Deann Borshay Liem, Filmmaker
August 4, 2010
The Beverly Hilton Hotel
© 2010 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). All rights reserved.
All TCA Press Tour transcripts are prepared immediately following press conferences. They are provided for your convenience and are not intended as a substitute at press conferences. Due to the speed with which these transcripts are prepared, complete accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
CYNTHIA LOPEZ: Good afternoon. I'm Cynthia Lopez,
Executive Vice President of American Documentary/POV.
Welcome to our session, featuring POV adoption stories, a
series of three personal documentaries premiering on PBS
from August 31st through September 14th, that look at
domestic and international adoption and the changing face
of the American family. Before we start, I'd like to
make a few announcements. Two of our films, "Patti
Smith: Dream of Life" and "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon),"
have been nominated for Emmy awards. And three of our
films -- "The English Surgeon," "The Reckoning," and "The
Way We Get By" -- are up for four news and documentary
Emmys, including best documentary for "The Reckoning."
Since the January press tour, when we featured "The Most
Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the
Pentagon Papers," we have secured our air date. The film
will conclude the season as a special PBS broadcast on
Tuesday, October 5th, at 9 p.m. Whistle-blowing in 2010,
as we've seen with Wikileaks, has made the Daniel
Ellsberg story even more fascinating. This season, POV
is joining forces with NPR's Peabody award-winning oral
history project StoryCorps to bring viewers the series'
best loved conversations in short animated documentaries
starting August 17th and continuing through September
7th. We've included a DVD in your PBS tote bag.
Now on to POV adoption stories. As of 2001, there were
about 1.5 million adopted children in the United States,
more than 2 percent of all American children, according
to the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. We are
delighted to have the people behind our adoption stories
with us here today, Donna Sadowsky, the mother featured
in "Wo Ai Ni, Mommy," "(I love you), Mommy," airing on
August 31st; and Avery Brooks Klein-Cloud, the subject of
"Off and Running," on September 7th; and Deann Borshay
Liem, the director, writer, co-producer, and subject of
"In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee," premiering on October
14th. Some of you may remember Deann from her press tour
appearance almost 10 years ago for "First Person Plural,"
which had an encore -- which has an encore presentation
this season on POV August 10th. "Wo Ai Ni, Mommy" and
"Off and Running" have been supported by the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting through a grant for POV's Diverse
Voices Project, a special initiative to support the work
of emerging filmmakers on public television. We'll have
many special features on our website, including a virtual
family album, an interactive time line with the history
of adoption in the United States and live chats. Now for
a preview of POV's adoption stories.
(Clip shown.)
CYNTHIA LOPEZ: Now, Donna, Avery, and Deann will take
questions. Thanks for attending this session.
QUESTION: Could you guys talk a little bit about -- you
know, all of these three films seem to be about identity,
who we are both as parents and as children who are not
physically born to them. Could you guys, especially --
and I'm so sorry. I'm blanking on your name, the young
lady in the middle there.
CYNTHIA LOPEZ: Avery.
QUESTION: Could you talk about -- what? I'm sorry.
CYNTHIA LOPEZ: Avery.
QUESTION: Avery. I apologize. Could you talk a little
bit about how you define who you are, especially coming
from two different cultures as you do?
AVERY BROOKS KLEIN-CLOUD: Am I going first? For me, my
identity is who I am. I do identify with my Jewish side
and my African-American side, but, you know, I'm a
combination of everything. I was raised Jewish, and, you
know, I'll always be Jewish. But, I mean, I guess I
can't say I'm just African-American. I'm kind of a
mixture of both. I can fit in, into both communities and
feel comfortable now at this point. There was a point
where I didn't feel that way. So my identity is who I am
and who I make myself to be. I'm an individual. I'm not
necessarily defined as a Jew or as an African-American.
CYNTHIA LOPEZ: Do you want to take that?
QUESTION: These are very extraordinary stories and very
personal ones. For each of you, how difficult was it to
decide to let a filmmaker tell your story?
CYNTHIA LOPEZ: Do you want to take that?
DONNA SADOWSKY: Okay. For Jeff and I, my husband and I,
we agonized quite a bit about whether or not it would be
the right thing to do, especially since Faith was coming
home as an older child. We felt that she might not be
thrilled with the idea of a camera on her all the time.
However, she handled it quite well. We really developed
a good relationship with Stephanie Wang-Breal, who was
our filmmaker, and she made it very comfortable to be
around. It was, I felt -- for myself, personally, my
goal was to make sure that people saw that it was a
blessing to adopt an older child because so many babies
are adopted every day, but the older children, they are
still sitting in orphanages, waiting to find their
families. And I wanted people to see that it's a
blessing to adopt an older child.
AVERY BROOKS KLEIN-CLOUD: Do you want to go?
DEANN BORSHAY LIEM: I am the filmmaker. So -- but, you
know, I think, for me, it was really -- it's a personal
film, and it's sort of a personal essay, actually. I
think, when I made my previous film, "First Person
Plural," it was clear to me that I hadn't fully resolved
everything about my adoption, and there was a lot still,
especially in relationship to this kind of mystery girl,
the girl that I was supposed to be, that hadn't really
resolved. It felt like it was the last thing that I
needed to kind of bring closure to about my adoption.
But it's a funny thing to put a camera on yourself and on
your own family. Fortunately, my family is very patient
and understanding, although I think they'd be happy if I
stopped making movies about myself, as would I. I think
this is it.
QUESTION: Over here to your left.
CYNTHIA LOPEZ: Avery.
QUESTION: To your left.
QUESTION: Over here. I'm waving. Oh.
CYNTHIA LOPEZ: There's still -- he wanted -- Barry
wanted Avery to answer the question as well, and then
I'll go to the next person. Avery?
AVERY BROOKS KLEIN-CLOUD: For me, I actually -- the
filmmaker, Nicole Opper, she was actually my teacher in
-- when I was in junior high. We met when I was about 12
years old. We met earlier than that, but she started
teaching me when I was 12. So when she asked my parents
if she could film, it wasn't really that hard of a
decision for me to make because I already knew her. So I
was actually relatively comfortable with the idea. I did
think about it for a little bit, but it wasn't that hard
of a decision for me to make.
CYNTHIA LOPEZ: There was, up -- I'm sorry. I just can't
see it. There was a woman that --
QUESTION: Here. Over here.
CYNTHIA LOPEZ: Okay.
QUESTION: I have, like, three questions. You are the
one that did the Cha Lee Jung --
DEANN BORSHAY LIEM: "Cha Jung Hee."
QUESTION: Yes. Did you ever -- did you ever find her,
or is that still in question?
DEANN BORSHAY LIEM: I think I did find her. I met a
number of Cha Jung Hees during this journey, and I
feature three of the Cha Jung Hees who are of my
generation in the film. And I think the last one that I
met is her. There's some confusion about the facts about
the adoption. It turns out that she didn't have the
birth date that was on my documents. There are certain
facts like her father, you know, not being dead. My
documents said that I had no father, that he had
committed suicide, that my birth mother had died giving
birth to me, et cetera. It turns out all of that was
sort of made up. And so her facts don't match that, but
it turns out it was sort of a marketing tool. But,
nevertheless, because she is Cha Jung Hee, she came from
the same orphanage that I was in, in the same town, I
think it's -- and her name is actually rare. Cha is a
very rare Korean name. If she had been Kim Jung Hee or
Lee Jung Hee, there would have been thousands, but as it
turned out, there are only hundreds of Cha Jung Hees. So
I do think it was her.
QUESTION: And is it Faith?
DONNA SADOWSKY: Yes.
QUESTION: The lady in the middle.
DONNA SADOWSKY: No. That's Avery.
AVERY BROOKS KLEIN-CLOUD: I'm Avery.
QUESTION: Avery. Okay. What did your friends think
about the fact that you -- because you said you just came
to terms with being Jewish just as a religion and then
being African-American now. So how do your friends treat
you?
AVERY BROOKS KLEIN-CLOUD: My friends treat me as, I
guess, a normal friend. I don't really think they see me
as different. I mean, I get along with who I get along
with. I kind of pick my friends based off of -- I'm very
honest about my family background. So I'm kind of one to
put it out there that I have two white mothers and two
different brothers that look different than me so that I
don't have to deal with the issues of people necessarily
being weirded out by my family background. So, I mean,
my friends that I have look at me as just another kid
that's their age that does the same things they do.
QUESTION: And what country are you from?
AVERY BROOKS KLEIN-CLOUD: I'm from -- well, I'm not
actually sure where I'm from. I'm pretty sure I'm from
the States. I was born in Texas. I'm not really sure
what my family background is, but, of what I know, I'm
from here.
QUESTION: And just for the filmmakers, whoever wants to
answer, there's so many kids here that -- to be adopted
in the United States. Why do people go out of the United
States? Even the stars go out of the United States to
adopt kids when kids from babies on up are left at
safe-surrender places, which is good because they don't
end up in trash cans anymore. But, you know, I mean, the
fact is, there's so many kids that are born in the
United States that are just not wanted and given up for
adoption. And you hear people that adopt all the time
from other countries. Why do you think that is?
AVERY BROOKS KLEIN-CLOUD: Is the question for me or for
you?
DONNA SADOWSKY: For me, personally, I think there needs
to be a lot more reform as far as adoption goes in the
United States. The foster-care system needs an entire
revamping. In our case, we just felt that we wanted to
adopt a child from China. We knew that there were so
many children that were languishing in orphanages. The
one-child policy makes it very difficult, and that was
just a personal decision that we made. Jeff and I are
from New York. We were older at the time, and the
adoption system in the United States is very -- it's very
difficult. I mean, you could hook up with a birth family
and pay for all the mom's expenses and go through the
whole thing and then have her change her mind at the very
last minute, which, obviously, it's her prerogative.
However, you don't -- you do not get anything back from
any of the funding that you put into it, and there's no
guarantee that you are going to have a child at the end
of all of that.
QUESTION: So it's easier to adopt from overseas than it
is in America?
DONNA SADOWSKY: I didn't say it was easier. If you've
ever seen some of the paperwork that's involved in
international adoption, no. It's not easier. It's just
a different system.
QUESTION: Is there something we can conclude from these
three films about the common experience of adoption? Is
there a point where everyone goes through an identity
crisis or has an urge to find out more about birth
parents? And I also wanted to ask Cynthia what brought
about this group of films or this initiative?
CYNTHIA LOPEZ: Sure. Maybe I'll take that piece of the
question. Simon Kilmurry, the Executive Director at
POV, and myself, we extensively, through our editorial
process, look at many films per year, and WGBA was
involved many years ago in trying to pull funding
together for an adoption series, and we had been in
contact with Deann, because we actually broadcast "First
Person Plural," the first installment of this trilogy,
and we were also, as part of our funding for the -- that
we obtained from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting
for our "Diverse Voices" projects, acquired "Off and
Running" and "Wo Ai Ni, Mommy" and what we found was all
of a sudden we looked, and we said, "Oh, gosh. There is
this common theme," and when you look across and we see
Faith as a young girl and then we see Deann as sort
of -- I don't want to say older woman.
DEANN BORSHAY LIEM: More mature person.
CYNTHIA LOPEZ: -- mature representative, and then Avery
was sort of in the middle, we said, "Oh, this would be a
wonderful trilogy to do together." But some of the
questions that the previous journalist asked about
domestic versus international, we started doing all this
research. We didn't understand the complexities of how
difficult, depending upon the type of adoption you were
going after in the United States, how many years it took
and what -- now there are rules like if you're a certain
body mass index, you can't adopt. If you're over 45 in
certain countries, you can't adopt. There's so many
restrictions that we said we would like to use these
three films together and bring to light some of that
information. So that's why we thought it would be a
good pairing.
QUESTION: So there were three independent films that
you put together as a grouping?
CYNTHIA LOPEZ: Exactly. And submitted -- we were
working with filmmakers at different times. I was going
to say at the end of the session, that in addition to
the representatives we have here, we also have the
director of "Off and Running," Nicole Opper, who is
here, and we also have the associate producer of "Wo Ai
Ni, Mommy," Ursula, who is in the back as well. So if
folks have additional questions, you can ask them after
the session as well.
QUESTION: Deann, I'm assuming as the adopted person you
grew up your whole life with a thousand questions, and
each one of those questions had another thousand
questions. Are you at peace yet?
DEANN BORSHAY LIEM: Am I what?
QUESTION: At peace.
DEANN BORSHAY LIEM: Am I at peace? That's a hard question
to answer. I think I am at peace on one level. And
having made "First Person Plural," which was a very
emotional journey for my adoptive parents and I, and my
birth family, too, and now this film, I feel like the
pieces of my adoption, in terms of identity question,
questions about belonging, and am I Korean, am I white,
what am I, and also my relationship with my birth
family, I feel I've come to resolved ground. I think
this, in particular -- you asked whether I had found Cha
Jung Hee. I think finding Cha Jung Hee was an important
thing for me. Meeting these Cha Jung Hees, women named
Cha Jung Hee, even -- anyone named Cha Jung Hee was
fantastic, was an amazing experience. But I think for
me what was most significant was that in the end, I
discovered that this was really a journey about coming
to resolve about who I was, and my own -- this very deep
question about belonging, you know, did I really belong
in the U.S.? Can I really claim America as my home?
Can I claim and do I have a right to love my American
family? Not only because I was adopted and I'm a
different race and cultural background, but because I
was supposed to be this other person to begin with, and
that I came to America citizenship through false
circumstances.