Found in China
by Carolyn Stanek

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Movie Reviews of Found in China

Movie Review: Found in China
Summary: 4 Stars

Summary of Found in China

The 80-minute documentary focuses on the 9- to 13-year-old girls and how they attempt to fit together the puzzle pieces of their pasts.

The impact that this trip makes on the children and their parents cannot be underestimated. It provides a foundation for additional dialogue and emotional development. Because Chinese adoptions are not "open"--birthparent records are not kept because it is a crime to abandon one's child--few details can be found about an adoptee's background.

Occasionally an adoptee can visit with foster parents or the person who discovered the child and took her to an orphanage. But most find little in their orphanage files.

"Found in China" captures the spontaneity of the children seeing China for the first time since leaving the country as infants or toddlers. The documentary reveals their thoughts about their orphanages, caregivers and the foster families.

The possibilities of searching for birthparents is explored by tour participants, with insights from older Korean adoptees and adoption specialists including Sara Dorow, PhD, best known for her book, "When You Were Born in China."

Filmmaker Carolyn Stanek adopted two Chinese daughters in the early 1990s and thus the documentary includes scenes from their orphanage, Jiande, in Zhejiang province. Other stops on the tour included Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Shanghai for Stanek's family. Scenes from Nanchang and Changsha were also contributed by another family. Stanek's background includes being a reporter for the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, a journalism instructor, and author of a book about Title IX (Contemporary Books). She then obtained an MBA from the University of Chicago which enabled her to become a stock analyst for a couple decades.

Returning to her love of journalism, she took filmmaking classes while researching and preparing to produce "Found in China." Music featured in the documentary is from Jonathan Rickert of Berkeley, CA. His rhythms combine the rich lyricism of Asian influence along with downtempo electronic music.

Nell Bryden, a Brooklyn-born vocalist and guitarist, sings "Goodbye" for the closing credits. San Francisco street musician Michael Masley plays his cymbalom (a Hungarian-styled dulcimer) throughout the terra cotta soldiers scene.

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