OUTSIDE LOOKING
IN: TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION IN AMERICA
An inside look at three
American families brought together
-- and at times pushed apart--by transracial
adoption
(New York, NY) - In this one-hour film, director Phil Bertelsen introduces three families with transracially adopted children of three different generations, growing up in three different regions of the country. As a black child adopted by white parents in the 1970's and raised in a predominantly white suburb, his adolescence was shaped by fond memories of a loving family as well as by difficult periods of self-examination and self-doubt. Bertelsen draws from his personal experiences as he films his family and those following a similar path. He examines his 11-year-old nephew's adoption and also reveals the dramatic story of a white couple trying to adopt a black child today. OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION IN AMERICA will air nationally on public television in February 2002.
Bertelsen's sister Aline and her two transracially adopted sons represent the second generation of transracial adoptions for the Bertelsen family. Finding few opportunities for his nephew, Philip, to develop an African American identity in his hometown of Tucson, Bertelsen brings Philip to visit him in Harlem, New York. There he encourages him to explore and proclaim a black identity of his own, with results that convey important lessons of identity and self-awareness to both uncle and nephew separately.
The viewer also accompanies a third family - a mid-western white couple - as they meet an African-American woman who is putting her two-month-old son up for adoption. The film records a very rare and emotionally powerful moment - the exchange of a baby from birth parent to adoptive parent. The filmmaker's own narrative voice-over weaves these stories together, conveying the ways transracial adoption is both deeply personal and broadly political.
Each family's story explores a different aspect of the many complex issues that arise when child and parent do not share the same racial background. These voices - sometimes confident, sometimes questioning, and at times frustrated - narrate a 30-year history of transracial adoption in America. Each family's experience is influenced by differences in time (adoption in the 1970s, 1980s or the year 2001), place (New Jersey, Arizona, and Illinois) and approach (color-blind or color-conscious). Bertelsen, as both adoptee and filmmaker, provides a unique perspective that goes beyond the personal.
As America struggles to understand and address its own complex racial history, OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION IN AMERICA compels viewers to go past the traditional pro versus con debate. Bertelsen captures the complexity of being physically bonded to one race and emotionally bonded to another. This approach allows audiences to enter this charged discussion and decide for themselves how best to raise a child across racial lines.
In the film, Bertelsen explores his own conflicted ideas about where, and to whom, he and others like him belong. He explains, "On a personal level, I recognized my adoptive family as the people I love and trust most in the world. Yet as I grew up, many made me feel out of place in the back of the family station wagon. I could see that I was black, but I couldn't understand why that meant I belonged to a community aside from the one in which I lived &endash; that is, the black community with which I had virtually no contact. As a child these distinctions made little sense to me. Over the years, I found myself wondering which factors &endash; physical, emotional, historical, social &endash; determine where I belong. Unable to find suitable answers in others, I looked inward. The tension between an internal and external identity, between a cultural legacy and a family history, inspired me to make this documentary."
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION IN AMERICA is particularly timely, as the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act (MEPA) &endash; passed by Congress in 1996 &endash; has launched a new wave of transracial adoptions. In an effort to facilitate the placement of children of color, Congress passed MEPA. The law mandates the "recruitment of minorities as adoptive and foster families" but explicitly "prohibits race as a consideration" in adoption placements. Championed by Hillary Clinton at the 1996 Democratic convention as part of the President's Adoption 2002 plan, this legislation favors a color-blind placement policy to counteract an overcrowded foster care system. By supplying a voice to those directly affected by these policies, this film will generate dialogue about the implications for these parents and their children. These explorations and discussions will open the way for more concrete considerations of the larger topics facing our society: race, family and identity.
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION IN AMERICA, a presentation of the Independent Television Service (ITVS), is produced by Viewfinder Media Inc. and Big Mouth Productions, Inc. with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Black Programming Consortium.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Phil Bertelsen, Writer and director of OUTSIDE LOOKING
IN
An award-winning filmmaker, Phil Bertelsen has an M.F.A. in Film from New York University where he was a Johnson Scholar and Spike Lee Fellow. His first film, AROUND THE TIME, was honored with several awards, including a Student Academy Award and a Wasserman Award as Best Film at NYU.
Bertelsen's film THE SUNSHINE has won Best Documentary at both the New York and Palm Springs International Short Film Festivals as well as Best Short Documentary at the Woodstock Film Festival and a Jury Prize from the Newport International Film Festival. Bertelsen participated in the Sundance 2000 filmmakers workshops where he began work on two screenplays. He is presently in post-production on a segment for the four-part PBS "Matters Of Race" series for Roja Productions. Prior to coming to New York, Bertelsen, who holds a BA in Political Science from Rutgers University in his native New Jersey, was a Producer/Director of public affairs television and helped to launch Philadelphia's PBS station WYBE-TV.
PROGRAM CREDITS
Written and
Directed by Phil Bertelsen Editor Emma Joan
Morris Produced
by Katy Chevigny Original
Music Erin O'Hara Co-Produced
by Dallas Brennan Executive
Producers Quincy Jones Directors of
Photography Joel Simon John Foster Jill Tanner Alejandro E.
Smith
Board of Advisors
St. Clair Bourne, independent filmmaker, NY
Margaret A. Fleming, LCSW (Adoption-Link, Inc.)
Madelyn Freundlich, MSW / JD (Children's Rights, Inc.)
Beth Hall (PACT - An Adoption Alliance)
Prof. Ruth-Arlene W. Howe, SM / JD (Boston College Law School)
Leora Neal, MSW / CSW (National Association of Black Social Workers)
Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao (Center for Family Connections)
Gail Steinberg (PACT - An Adoption Alliance)
David Watts, M.A./Ed (Prep for Prep)
Screening and workshop May 10, at NYS Citizens' Coalition for Children statewide adoption conference, Linking Promises to Possibilities (May 10-11, 2002 Albany, NY)
Calendar of Outside Looking In events and video purchase information from Big Mouth Productions.
The story behind Outside Looking In, viewers comments, and more, from Independent Television Service.