FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY
2018 Documentary answers
In the fall semester of 2018, Grace undertook an Independent Study with Sociology Professor David Schalliol, where she explored documentary filmmaking through a sociological lens. She chose the topic of transnational adoption. The IS enabled Grace to form a group of female Chinese adoptees, and create a safe space where they could learn from their different experiences together. For many of them, it was the first time they were able to talk about their adoption journeys candidly with other adoptees who ‘got it’. Questions were posed, and a conversation that enabled healing and understanding ensued. This is the audio from that discussion.
2019 podcast
After recording the documentary in December of 2018, we wondered how different our answers would be had we been asked them after our Independent Study together. During one of the last weeks of the term, we got together to record a podcast to mirror the documentary questions and to track our progress. One of the most significant pieces we learned throughout the semester was an adoptee’s journey is never truly over, and we will continue to change and grow and learn about our adoptee identity. We view these two interviews as a kind of time capsule to document the transformations we underwent throughout the term, and to remind ourselves to continue to ask ourselves these questions and take stock of our answers. We do not believe that our answers in May 2019 are any more correct or valid than our answers in December of 2018. These works are simply meant to stand as evidence of our own identity development depending upon our surroundings and studies.