Film, panel discuss adoption

Fang Lee is stuck between two countries. Born in China but adopted by American parents, Lee said that she is confused about her identity. 

Lee is just one such girl the documentary “Somewhere Between” follows as it explores these questions of identity. The film was screened Monday night in Posvar Hall from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Following the screening, the floor opened for a Q-and-A session with a panel that included Linda Goldstein Knowlton, who produced the documentary; Sarah Springer, medical director of International Adoption Health Services of Western Pennsylvania; and Penny Edwards, a South Korean adoptee.

The documentary explores the lives of four female adoptees from China and the hardship they have faced in coming to terms with their past. The film opens with a chaotic scene of crying babies and smiling parents at an adoption agency. Initially, the camera focuses on Goldstein Knowlton and her newly adopted daughter, Ruby. Goldstein Knowlton adopted a now 8-year-old Ruby when she was a baby of only 10 months. 

These four girls represent a small portion of about 80,000 children who were abandoned in China and now reside in the United States. 

According to the U.S. Department of State, which tracks international adoptions by American families through its Bureau of Consular Affairs, Pennsylvanians adopted 295 foreign-born children last year. Nationwide, Americans adopted 8,668 children from other countries in the 2012 fiscal year. The majority of these children were girls and most were 4 years old or younger. Of these children, 2,697 came from China.

Goldstein Knowlton, who released “Somewhere Between” in 2011, said the film was intended to help answer her daughter’s questions about being adopted.

“I just thought it’d be a really interesting, scary and exciting topic to explore,” she said.

Following Ruby’s appearance in the film, the camera enters the private lives of four teenage girls who live in different parts of the United States.

“These young women have this wealth of experience and nobody has given them a voice, so I wanted to talk to them,” Goldstein Knowlton said.

Lee tells the camera that she was adopted when she was 5 years old, although she doesn’t know her exact age. 

She explains that it is difficult to trace her past because of the vast size of her homeland. 

“It’s a blessing to know your roots, but in a country of billions, the chances [of finding your biological parents] are slim,” she said. 

Despite these low chances, Haley Butler, another girl in the film, successfully returned to her village in China and found her biological family.

Butler’s journey to find her parents was documented in the film. It shows her hanging up posters in the town center that displayed her image and asked for information about her birth family. Only a few hours later, a man approached her, claiming to be her father.

Goldstein Knowlton captures Butler’s emotional reunion with her birth parents. Soon after, she separated from her parents once again. The camera showed Butler’s biological parents holding hands with Butler through the car window, even as the car begins to drive away. 

After the movie, the panel discussion began, allowing audience members to ask questions about international adoption.

Penny Edwards, a panelist that evening and  social worker for Catholic Charities, said that international adoption is often complicated. For one, the language barrier between American agencies and adopters and foreign adoptees becomes a challenge. 

“It’s weird,” she said. “You have this translator translating such complex emotions.”

According to Goldstein Knowlton, after having delved into the emotional journeys alongside the film stars and their families, she developed lasting relationships with them. 

“I came into it as a filmmaker and then looked at these girls and said, ‘Oh, I’m talking to my daughter,’” she said. “These young women have become part of my family.”