Adoption on Television - Links to all available past programs

[Lilka]

We need this I think - got information on various different threads about different tv programs but it's all scattered about.

So, Lilka's big list of adoption related documentaries and where to watch them!

1. Panorama: The Truth About Adoption
   

Filmed in Coventry, this documentary covers the search for an adoptive family for two sisters, decision making about the future of 3 children in care, and the story of a little boy whose foster parents want to adopt him but whose birth mother wants him back
Watch here - tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=895d85fb2ec51fe196c73e05b37d79f5

1. A Home For Maisie
   

In her 8 years of life, Maisie has lived in 10 different homes and been through 2 adoption disruptions. She has significant emotional and behavioural needs. Social services have placed her for adoption one final time, with a couple who have already adopted 8 older children, but if this doesn't work out, Maisie will spend the rest of her childhood in care. This documentary follows the family and Maisie as they go through therapy at Family Futures, an organisation with a 95% success rate at keeping families together
Watch - www.dailymotion.com/video/x154fol_a-home-for-maisie_people

1. Love is Not Enough
   

This moving 8 part series followed 4 families in the late 1990's, as they went through an intensive home study process and adopted their children (both domestic and international adoption). The filmmakers then followed up to see what life was like several years after adoption. Very moving and in depth, this is still relevant and worth watching 14 years after it first aired
Watch all episodes - vimeo.com/album/2529993

1. Protecting our Children
   

This 3 part series followed social workers as they worked with vulnerable families in their area, and made decisions about when to take children into care
Watch - www.dailymotion.com/video/x15pc3t_protecting-our-children-ep1_lifestyle

More to follow when I find the links

[EllieCharlie52]

Brill, thanks! I'll check them out.

[ChaosAndCrumbs]

@EllieCharlie52

Hiya,

I've watched some Long Lost Family, the Ellie Symonds documentary and a couple of others but I can't remember the titles! All very moving and helpful. I'd be interested in watching ones that were focused on earlier stages like application and small at children going into care etc. Though I'm not sure it's fair on the kids involved for them to be put on tv.

The Love is not enough series goes through the whole adoption assessment and matching and the first stages of settling as a new family. Also 15,000 kids and counting (on Dailymotion), which is more focused on foster care, but also has matching in it. I think those links are still working from earlier on this thread, if that’s helpful?

[EllieCharlie52]

Oh and when I had Netflix I did watch the one about the three American Chinese girls who travelled back to China, that was really interesting and moving. I'd be interested in seeing the Curious Case of Natalia Grace too though I don't have Prime and anything else people can recommend!

[EllieCharlie52]

Hiya,

I've watched some Long Lost Family, the Ellie Symonds documentary and a couple of others but I can't remember the titles! All very moving and helpful. I'd be interested in watching ones that were focused on earlier stages like application and small at children going into care etc. Though I'm not sure it's fair on the kids involved for them to be put on tv.

[Italiangreyhound]

@EllieCharlie52 some of these programmes are really moving.

Which ones did you watch?

[EllieCharlie52]

I realise this thread is a bit old but I found this yesterday and watched it and found it very moving and helpful as a prospective adopter and have just found this thread. Thanks to all who've contributed to it!

[sunshineandskyscrapers]

*adoptive mum, not adopted mum

[sunshineandskyscrapers]

Race Across the World (series 2), available on iPlayer, has an adopted mum and son who I can relate to so much. It isn't a programme about adoption as such. It's a show that has real families, and this one happens to be created by adoption. They do touch upon some very real adoption issues as part of their journey, however.

[ifchocolatewerecelery]

I'd add in the recent Ellie Simmonds: finding my secret family documentary too. It's thought provoking and it made me cry when she found out her foster carer had died before she could meet her as an adult.

[Italiangreyhound]

@ChaosAndCrumbs thank you for sharing.

[ChaosAndCrumbs]

Sorry to revive an Old thread, but I thought it was useful to keep links in one place. Found a few I thought I’d add, not all adoption but all related.

KIDS - 40D
So this is more about the kinds of issues children might face, but as it follows teenagers in contact with social services, they are able to explain some more of their feelings or portray their experiences in a way that isn’t always as clearly seen when following younger children.
”With unprecedented access to young people in the care of Coventry Children's Services, Kids follows teenagers through a crucial year in their lives.”

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/kids

Found - Netflix
There are different issues at play here than for children adopted in their birth country, but it looks at the impact of the one child policy alongside demonstrating the kinds of emotions adoptees experience when seeking birth family and/or trying to understand their roots. It shows the importance of other carers in the context an adoptee’s life story (not just birth parents) and the idea of connecting with others who’ve had similar experiences.
“Three adopted American teenage girls discover that they are blood-related cousins. Their online meeting inspires the young women to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime journey to China together in search of answers, connections and their lost history.”

https://www.netflix.com/title/81476857

From Romania, with love - YouTube
Again, this focuses on reunion and inter country adoption. The adoptees featured are honest and their emotions really come across. This documentary also touches on seeking siblings.
“The fall of the Soviet Union left a segment of largely unknown victims in its wake: Romanian orphans. Now young adults, many of these orphans are heading back to their home countries to trace the steps of their troubled foundations and to track down the parents who gave them up.”

(Not too keen on the ‘gave them up’ wording, but it’s taken directly from the write-up)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BNQId41nSjk

Not sure if anyone sure The Curious Case of Natalia Grace on Prime, but that really highlighted some differences between UK and US adoption for me. I found it really sad and disturbing, so not sure I’ll post the link as I’m not sure how helpful it is in understanding the UK process. It focuses a lot on her age, which was the key focus in the documentary. It does touch on attachment issues, but I don’t think it ever mentions them by name, which I also found unsettling. It features descriptions of abuse, some videos of emotional abuse and certainly demonstrates the importance of getting to the nitty gritty in assessing prospective parents - the parents who did adopt her seem to have no understanding of adoption, trauma, attachment or anything else really. Lots of bizarre, cliched thoughts seem to come across, though the dad (who hogs a lot of camera time) seems very bizarre and unhinged anyway and the mum is portrayed as paranoid and quite delusional (or just manipulative).

[Italiangreyhound]

@Nadelemisi loved the Love is not enough series. I also found some of the social work ones were brilliant.

[Nadelemis]

I came across this old thread last night and watched 4 of the programmes listed so far . This is so heartbreaking! I feel so very sad for the children but, also for birth parents and social workers who -as others said -have an extremely hard job to do. I surely couldn't do it.

However, as heartbreaking as it is, I think all prospective adopters should watch these as they are really eye opening. Thanks so much @Lilka for compiling all the links!! I had no idea those programmes even existed.

[MagpieSong]

Not an adoption documentary, but I thought it was useful in understanding experiences of children who's parents have been addicts. The documentary follows both parents and children in one of the only parent-child rehabs in the country. For anyone who's thinking of starting the adoption process, it does show how parents can struggle to put children first and the effects of child neglect. I think it's useful in showing the cycles often too, where grandparents are interviewed, we hear parts of the parents' histories and struggles as well as some of the neglect and struggles both younger and older children have gone through (some in their words and some through professionals).

Episode 2, in particular, illustrates some common issues (in families where parents struggle with addiction) really clearly by following a family unit with their young son, who displays some sensory issues as well as the uncertainty (often brought up in adoption) about whether this is something like autism or simply due to the serious chronic neglect he's experienced. The mother's alcohol use is mentioned when it discusses what addictions she's struggled with, so although FASD isn't mentioned by name it's obviously a possible factor for this little lad. There's also a scene where the Mum's talking to the child's SW and it demonstrates her inability to grasp that the SW's job is focused on the child's needs.

Anyway, I thought it might be useful for those at the earlier points of their adoption journey because of the family and parenting issues it touches on, the fact the families are all under SS with children deemed at risk by the parenting they've received and the way it shows interactions between parents and children (both positive and negative) ranging from teenagers to babies.

Episode 01 - Mums
(part 1)
www.dailymotion.com/video/x6tnqlh
(part 2)
www.dailymotion.com/video/x6tpdur

Episode 2 - Families
(part 1)
www.dailymotion.com/video/x6tpdwe
(part 2)
www.dailymotion.com/video/x6tpdvg

[BarcelonaFreddie]

I've just realised - I watched them the wrong way around 🙈
Bottom to top... oopsie.

[BarcelonaFreddie]

Oh right. I'll look again. Must have got confused.
Thank you.

[sunshineandskyscrapers]

All eight episodes are here:
vimeo.com/showcase/2529993

But Sarah's story concludes in episode 7. Yes, so very sad.

[BarcelonaFreddie]

Have they deleted the final episode of love is not enough? I can't find the episode featuring Sarah anywhere. It was so moving, and so so sad.

[Tablefish]

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but I though best to keep adding to the existing info.

Radio 4 have done a series following a mum working with SS to keep her new baby after having 9 kids removed.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08jp61r

I thought it gave a good insight into the other side of the process.

[darkriver19886]

@MagpieSong I havent watched the documentary as I am living with it. Letterbox is so hard for everyone but especially birth parents.

[MagpieSong]

@Weatherforducks, yes I thought so too. I also thought it gave a more positive message than often seen on Adoption documentaries. I've seen many focus on birth parents during that crisis point where children are removed or unable to be returned, but this gave a picture with hope and good moments as well as sad ones. I also felt on a more society wide scale it shows what positive support can be put into place. I shed a lot of tears, but I'm so glad I watched it. As someone adopted, I felt so sad letterbox contact was never maintained by my birth mum - but as an adult I've come to understand just how devastating that contact could feel, the documentary did well covering that.

[Weatherforducks]

Especially the thoughts on letterbox.

[Weatherforducks]

Thanks @MagpieSong, just watched it, definitely worth a look as well. It is a view from the perspective which is not often explored through film. I thought the programme was done sensitively, came from a different angle and really did offer food for thought.

[MagpieSong]

Sorry to raise this thread from the dead, but I thought it might be good to keep the links in the same place. I came across 'Child in Mind', a documentary that focuses on the birth mothers and a charity who engages with them to help them come to terms with the loss of their children and the struggles they've had. I thought it was a really good insight into the birth parent's difficulties and how that engagement helps them to overcome such huge difficulties.

I know it is directly about their children, but I think it can be so helpful knowing some of the thought processes and experiences birth parents go through - and when working out your own life story, it can help to form a picture of how they might have felt and why you (as an adopted child) couldn't grow up in your birth family.

Anyway, apologies again for raising this thread, but hope this can be helpful to someone.

[Hels20]

Boston - it was very depressing and somehow you knew the outcome. When the Dad was saying he didn’t want Mark and he was a piece of shit - you could see that despite all his bravado, he was really hurting. Emotionally neglected. Made me think about the possible challenges ahead with my DC who have tricky behaviour. But I must remember to always show love. Must remember.