Interview: In New Film, Korean Adoptees Search For Roots, Redefine Family Tree

After two documentaries on his adoption story, director Dean Lim continues his exploration of heritage with Geographies in Kinship: Stories of Adoption in Korea (Mufilms, 2012). The new film follows the stories of several Korean adoptees as they discover their roots and what those discoveries mean for who they are.

Beginning to research where he came from, Lim discovered the global adoption community, especially Korean adoptees, and began researching the unique stories of these former orphans.

Adopted by American parents in 1966, since the end of the Korean War in 1953, more than 200,000 Korean children have been adopted by Lim into families in Europe, the United States and Australia. Since then, the Korean adoption model has become a model for many other adoption systems around the world as they try to find a home for orphans abroad.

We asked Leah a few questions about what drives her passion for adoption stories and why she feels it is so important to tell them.

What attracted you to the history and theme of international adoption?

What strikes me about this story is that I myself am an adopted Korean. My parents, Arnold and Alvin Borsche, adopted me in 1966 and I grew up in a predominantly white community on the outskirts of California. Growing up, we never talked about adoption or my story, even though I was eight. Korea was not an important place in my parents' eyes. They weren't interested in learning more about the country, also because they felt it was more important to look to the future. They wanted me to assimilate as quickly as possible and enjoy the American dream they had worked so hard for.

As a result, I grew up as an American child without knowing anything about my past. I also grew up thinking I was an orphan with no family in Korea because this is what my adoption papers said. This turned out to be completely false. I had a family in Korea, but my identity changed when I was adopted. This story was told in my first film, First Person Cum ( PBS, 2000). The film follows my journey in search of my Korean family and ends with the emotional reunion of my adoptive and Korean-born family. In the next film , Cha Jung Hee Affair (PBS, 2010), I go to Korea to find my adopted daughter. Through the research of Cha Jung Hee, the film explores the issues of identity and destiny and examines the lives of working class women of my generation in Korea.

Although I have already made two films about transnational adoption, I am fascinated by the subject and all the issues of identity, family and ethics that adoption presents in our global world. I hope to continue exploring these questions in more depth in the new film The Geographies of Kinship .

The characters you meet are spread from France to Sweden to the United States of America. How did you find these characters and decided to follow them in a documentary about their history?

Every few years an event called "International Meeting of Korean Adopters" is held in Seoul. The event features hundreds of Korean adoptions and is organized by the International Korean Adoption Association (IKAA), a consortium of Korean adoption organizations from around the world. I visited in 2004 and it was the first time I met so many adopted Koreans from Sweden, France, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Australia and many other countries. It was absolutely fascinating.

What I learned in this meeting is that, with the help of the Internet, Korean adoptees have created a global "diaspora" that is alive and at the forefront of assimilation, cultural / ethnic identity and family formation. . I find it incredibly exciting, fascinating and inspiring, and I wanted to capture some of the heartwarming stories I've heard from around the world, as well as the spirit of this global diaspora, in a new film.

How has the Korean adoption model influenced subsequent adoption patterns around the world?

Since the 1940s, Americans have adopted nearly half a million children from more than 100 different countries. The practice of adopting children from foreign countries began after World War II, when Americans began adopting war orphans as a means of humanitarian aid. However, the declaration of the Korean War and the plight of the orphans marked a turning point in the expansion of international adoption around the world. International rescue efforts linked to the Korean War have not only involved the adoption of thousands of Korean orphans by predominantly white American families; They also included significant changes to adoption protocols, including "proxy adoption" which allows US citizens to adopt children in absentia through Korean courts. The Korean adoption program was so well organized that it soon became the Cadillac of international adoption, serving as a model for similar programs in China, Russia, Guatemala, Ethiopia, and many other countries.

What makes the Korean adoption platform different from other international adoption models?

There are many interesting points that make the Korean adoption process different from other countries. For example, the rise in Korean adoptions due to the Korean War and the first adoptions were biracial children of Korean mothers and foreign military. Estelle Cook-Sampson is one of the characters that will be featured in Kinship Geography . His mother was Korean and his father was African American. He feels abused in Korea for this reason, but is eventually adopted by an African American family and in Washington, DC

The adoption of children like Estelle paved the way for the adoption of thousands of other Korean children abroad. It didn't stop after that, which is another unique aspect of the Korean adoption program. After the war, Korea began a process of rapid industrialization and by 1987 had gone from a completely devastated country to the 10th largest economy in the world. However, despite Korea's "economic miracle", the number of orphans has increased and orphanages have expanded across the country. 80s. Today there is a heated, sometimes polarized, political debate about the future of Korea's adoption program and whether to end the practice. And in the midst of this controversy, Korean children are still being sent overseas.

How do you hope audiences will benefit from following these characters and their journey to discover their origins?

I think most of us, adopted or not, have asked at some point in our lives, "Who am I?" we ask ourselves the question. - Where am I from? Adopts no doubt ask the same questions, but the answers often include hidden stories of their adoptions, lost records, questions about race and assimilation, and more. are complicated by issues such as Adoptive People's Stories highlight, dramatize and challenge the universal questions we all ask, challenging us to broaden our understanding of the issues of identity, belonging and belonging. So I hope the audience asks questions about these issues and maybe gets out of their comfort zone.

At the same time, as far as Korea is concerned, I want the public to consider the political issues that people are currently facing in terms of the future of the Korean adoption program. South Korea is now a major player in the world economy and the conditions that require its acceptance abroad no longer exist after the Korean War. Why is international adoption continuing today and what are the alternative ways to meet the needs of children, single mothers and other vulnerable citizens? I understand that the questions are complex and have no simple answers. But I hope this film provides historical stories and information that will help viewers consider these difficult questions and find positive solutions.

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