SBS Series Seeks Intercountry Adoptee Participants

 

WOULD YOU LIKE TO RETURN TO YOUR BIRTH COUNTRY TO SEARCH FOR YOUR BIRTH FAMILY?

We are looking for someone who feels a profound need to try and find out more about themselves and who struggles on some level with their sense of identity as a result of their adoption.

We will cover the travel costs for our candidate to fly back to their birth country and stay for approximately ten days while they re-visit the orphanage they once lived in, experience the sights and sounds of their country of origin and search for their birth mother.

We are interested in accompanying someone on their journey back to Korea, India, Thailand, China or Africa. We already have two other participants (and their family members) returning to Romania and Sri Lanka.

Although we would prefer to follow someone who has never been back to their country of birth, we would also like to hear from people who have already been back to their country of birth but who have yet to meet their birth mother. The participant must live in Australia and have spent most of their childhood here.

Our production schedule kicks off next February and we expect to film between February and May 2009 but we are looking for candidates now!  The sooner we meet, the better.

Some candidates may already have located their birth mother’s whereabouts and made initial contact but have not met her yet. Others may go on a journey that does not lead them to their birth mother but perhaps uncovers siblings they never knew they had. Some searches may prove successful, others unsuccessful, despite the full dossier of information that our candidate has gathered together.

The adoptee will tell their own story and take us on their journey. Our stance is non-judgemental and we are aiming to present the personal, political, social and psychological issues that inter-country adoption raises for all concerned.

We will film our participant before, during and after as s/he embarks on their search.

We want to give as honest as account as possible of the complex emotions that come up, whether the individual finds their birth family or not. Counselling will be provided for the adoptee on their return to Australia should s/he request it and the program-makers will also provide information regarding support services for the birth family. 

Part of the brief of our series is to explore the wider issues around inter-country adoption too so, for example, the way Korea views unmarried mothers and the attitudes towards returning adoptees is of interest to us too. 

We will also be interviewing our participant's adoptive family to find out how the adoption process was for them and to get a greater sense of our participant's background so its important that members of the adoptive family are supportive of the documentary and willing to participate in it.  

If you’d like to find out more for yourself or if you know someone who you think might be interested, please give me a call or drop me an email and we can talk further. 

Contact : Dominique Pile
Screenworld, Sydney.
Direct Line : (61) 2 84251127
Switch: : (61) 2 9438 3377
Email : dominiquep@beckers.com.au