Geographies of Kinship – The Korean Adoption Story

Geographies of Kinship – The Korean Adoption Story:

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Sign up to help KickStart this film project, be part of the efforts to get out the multiple stories so others can see they are not alone. Every person's story is slightly different, and yet so similar. If you are a KAD, an adoptive parent/family member, whatever, take a look at the films done by MUFilms.

The Korean War Baby

Support the Geographies of Kinship Campaign! Geographies of Kinship – The Korean Adoption Story is the latest film from award-winning filmmaker, Deann Borshay Liem (First Person Plural and In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee). The film follows Korean adoptees from the U.S. and Europe on their journeys to reconnect with their birth country and piece together their past. Deann is raising funds for the production phase of the project. Please click here to view the trailer and help get this film made! A Note from Deann While traveling around the world with my previous films, I've met hundreds of Korean adoptees from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Canada and heard countless stories from adoptees of all ages – sometimes heartbreaking, oftentimes funny and ironic,always inspiring. Geographies of Kinship presents a small handful of the amazing stories I've heard from around the world. We meet, for example, Estelle Cooke-Sampson, a bi-racial adoptee who revisits the orphanage where she grew up until she was adopted by an African American soldier. Emma Anderson is a Swedish adoptee who visits Korea for the first time and unexpectedly reunites with her birth mother. Meanwhile, Michael Holloway meets his birth family via webcam on a live television show. He is shocked to discover he has an identical twin. We have already started development of the project and shot some interviews. We're now asking for contributions via Kickstarter so that we can continue our momentum and complete the shooting phase of the film. Your support will help get all the elements we need for the film so we can start editing and make what I know will be a fantastic film. There are all sorts of exciting prizes in exchange for your support. Please check out the Kickstarter campaign and pass this email and link along to all your friends! Thank you in advance and happy viewing! Deann Borshay Liem Producer/Director/Writer Visit www.mufilms.org Contact info@mufilms.org

"Ritwal" And "Sta. Nina" at Cinemalaya Slideshow & Video | TripAdvisor™

The Korean War Baby has been quite busy lately, getting offers to do film and television work in the Philippines. The Cinemalaya Film Festival in Manila, Rep. of the Philippines is currently going on. Here is just one of many film premieres that KWB has attended. Inde or Independent films, shorts, and full feature films are being shown at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.


"Ritwal" And "Sta. Nina" at Cinemalaya Slideshow & Video | TripAdvisor™:

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Jae Sun Says This-Swedish KAD blog on Reunion

Reunion with one's Birth/Natural/Bio Family...For Adoptees it is just one of the many thoughts that MAY cross their minds when they are growing up. It may be in a culturally mixed family, where one KNOWS that they were adopted, or when in domestic adoption the adoptee discovers or is told that they were adopted. No matter, when thoughts develop such as "who am I?" and "why was I given up?" We find sometimes fantasy thinking and wondering "WHAT IF".

It is said that 75,000 visits to Korea by Korean Adoptees, some as children with their adoptive parents/family members, many as adults, have taken place. The first visits usually include the processing adoption agencies, foster parents, and even the first orphanage (if it is still open). A 'taste of Korea',  experiencing the land of our birth, and for most it is a re-connection that opens up many questions with few answers. 

For fifteen years I lived in Korea, teaching English, as a half-breed, mixed-blooded Korean-American. It was my opportunity to be involved with Global Overseas Adoptee's Link, from the beginning in the coffee shops of Seoul, circa 1997 with the founder Ami Natzger. Ami saw the need for an organization to help KADs find their way around and get some help. Nolin and about a dozen of us continued to meet but it was Ami who did the 'heavy lifting'. 

Reunion has happened with only 2,600 approximately, and the stories are a range from total rejection by the Birth mother to a developing relationship with both families of the adult adoptee. We must realize that the past cannot be undone, cultural differences are huge, the reasons for relinquishment are vast, and each story is unique. We can though learn what some have gone through and are dealing with on day to day basis. This blog is by Elle, a Swedish Korean Adult Adoptee, and I encourage you to go back before 2010 when reunion took place. Follow her journey from the beginning, give encouragement and comments. This could be your story, it will help you to know her's. 


The Korean War Baby

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Jaesun says this

Heavy Me Stuff

This is my latest attempt of a blog, I write about my life as a Korean raised in Europe, living and being raised in Sweden, about Korea, adoption, my Korean family, reunion. And also about my daily life, opinions and values.

I look upon my life in different stages:

1. Stage I. The Ignorant/Oblivouis State (my arrival in Sweden til my 5th birthday). As I was not yet fully aware of ethnicity.
2. Stage II. The Awakening. (from my 5th birthday til my 12  birthday). I begun to realize that I was different since I was adopted.
3. Stage III. The Time for Impugnation. (12th birthday til 18th birthday). The teen years, time for questions and finding identity.
4. Stage IV. The Honemoon Phase. (18th birthday til 25th birthday) Around the time I found and meet my Korean family.
5. Stage V. Age Of Realism. (25th birthday and ongoing.) The time after my second trip, I realized and accepted many things…

As for the future stages( Stage VI and onwords ) I’m not sure what they exactly will entail but I’m more than happy to share my daily experience with anyone who might be willing to listen.

I’m fairly confident and convinced that Korea will be a part of my life just as adoption always be. The two simply wouldn’t function together…