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Adoption and Foster Care (10)
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A Family for MariaLina Gagnon 1992 5 minAn animated film for five- to eight-year-olds about international adoption and the difficulty of adapting to a new environment. The film also gives a glimpse into the problems of abandoned children in developing countries. In A Family for Maria/Une famille pour Maria, love triumphs over the insecurity of a little Latin American girl who finds a new family in North America. -
A Further Glimpse of JoeyDon Owen 1966 27 minDirected by Don Owen, this follow-up to Graham Parker’s 1964 filmJoey revisits the life of the eponymous young boy, who at the age of seven had trouble finding adoptive parents, most of whom look for children who are still in their infant years. This film catches up with Joey after he has found a home, and reveals some of the problems he faces in adjusting to the routines of family life.
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Giiwe - This is HomeMerle Robillard & Andrew Lau 2020 27 minBetween 1965 and 1984, Canadian child protection workers removed more than 20,000 indigenous children from their homes on reserves and placed them in foster care or put them up for adoption without the consent of their families or bands. Almost all of these children were placed with white, middle class families, and were effectively stripped of their cultural identities. Many bounced from foster home to foster home, ran away, and developed addictions in order to cope. Some of these children were treated like slave labour and/or experienced physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
The majority developed emotional problems later in life and had difficulty developing a strong sense of identity in either the Euro-Canadian or their indigenous cultures. Brent Mitchell, who was removed from his Ojibwe home near Sagkeeng First Nations, Manitoba when he was just a year old and moved to New Zealand with his foster parents when he was five where he endured emotional, physical and sexual abuse.
Brent Mitchell’s story clearly illustrates the complete lack of sensitivity, respect and consideration to aboriginal children to their culture and family. In the summer of 2017, we met Brent and his wife, Yolanda who traveled from New Zealand to Winnipeg, Manitoba. During the week we spent together, we witnessed the connection grow between Brent, his sister, Penny and brother, Ron as well as with their identity and culture. -
A Kind of FamilyAndrew Koster 1992 53 minThis feature documentary tells the complex and touching story of Winnipeg city councilor Glen Murray and his 17-year-old adopted son Mike, whose struggles with addiction and behavioural problems cyclically repeat. Glen, now an Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament, was one of the first openly gay elected politicians in Canada. He adopted Mike during an era when homophobic stereotypes often prevented gay men and women from adopting children. Glen and Mike's relationship is always tenuous and always turbulent as they struggle to define themselves together and alone.
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A Place Between - The Story of an AdoptionCurtis Kaltenbaugh 2007 1 h 14 minIn this film, a cross-cultural adoptee struggles to find balance between his families' different ethnicities and traditions and discover how and where he fits into each world. Following the tragic death of their younger brother in 1980, Curtis Kaltenbaugh, 7, and his brother Ashok, 4, were removed from their birth mother's care in Manitoba and adopted into a white, middle-class family in Pennsylvania. This film follows Curtis' struggle with his biological family's turbulent history and observes what happens when his biological and adoptive families finally meet.
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A Quiet GirlAdrian Wills 2023 1 h 26 minIn A Quiet Girl, adopted Montreal filmmaker Adrian Wills discovers, on camera and in real time, the startling truths of his complex beginnings in Newfoundland. Shocking details drive Wills to the core of his birth mother’s resilience, and ultimately his own. In this moving feature documentary that combines 16mm footage and contemporary images with deeply personal conversations, Wills’ voyage transforms from an urgent search for identity into a quest to give a quiet girl her voice.
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Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis ChildAlanis Obomsawin 1986 29 minRichard Cardinal died by his own hand at the age of 17, having spent most of his life in a string of foster homes and shelters across Alberta. In this short documentary, Abenaki director Alanis Obomsawin weaves excerpts from Richard’s diary into a powerful tribute to his short life. Released in 1984—decades before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission—the film exposed the systemic neglect and mistreatment of Indigenous children in Canada’s child welfare system. Winner of the Best Documentary Award at the 1986 American Indian Film Festival, the film screened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2008 as part of an Obomsawin retrospective, and continues to be shown around the world.
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To my birthmother...Beverly Shaffer 2002 54 minDelving into the past is a risky business but for someone who's been adopted, there's a compelling need to know. When Marie Klaassen went looking for her birthmother, she discovered that trying to find her would take perseverance and guts and that succeeding in the search was not the end but another beginning.
To my birthmother... answers the question "Oh my God, how did you find me?" with warmth and dignity. It is Marie's frank and earthy account of a personal journey through other times and other places to find the woman who gave her life. Told as a video diary, it's a fascinating story of a reunion fraught with suspense, humour and humanity. -
They Think I'm Chinese!Nicole Giguère 2011 52 minThousands of girls who were in the first wave of Chinese children to be adopted in Québec in the 1990s have reached adolescence. The filmmaker focused her lens on five of them and accompanied them throughout their emotionally charged transition to adulthood. In their quest for identity, how do these young Quebecers experience their difference? An intimate and touching journey into the world of Alice, Lea, Julia, Anne and Flavie.
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Wards of the CrownAndrée Cazabon 2005 42 minThis film examines the lives of 4 young people who grew up in the child welfare system. It is also a critical exposé of a system that couldn't meet their needs, as well as a stirring tribute to the strength, courage and resilience of these foster kids.
