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

[Lilka]

I tracked down "Mercy Mercy"/"The price of an adoption" with English subtitles. Powerful and devastating portrait of the serious problems with international adoption in some countries. I cried and I still feel upset and angry but it's a documentary worth the watching.

The film maker filmed the birth parents and adoptive parents of 2 Ethiopian children over several years before and after their adoption. The birth parents gave up their children because they were told they were both going to die of AIDS in the next couple of years, and because they were promised contact with their kids by the agency who were looking for parents who would give up their children. (They haven't died and they haven't recieved any contact either btw), and the filmmaker visited them several times after the adoption to hear their story. The Danish parents wanted to do the right thing but struggled with an older child who just wanted to go back home to Ethiopia.

As to the adoption agency, to give you the gist of how they were behaving; if the adoption agency representatives were transfigured into baby kittens, I would still be of half a mind to punch the baby kittens in the face

It's a Danish film and the person who uploaded it has put English subtitles on it - it isn't great as far as subtitles go (text speak and a few language issues) BUT you'll get the gist of everything just fine, and at least he did it in the first place because I couldn't find any other verison on the internet with English subtitles.

[Italiangreyhound]

I've just watched the first two episodes and I am totally hooked but utterly torn. What a terrible and sad programme. The contrast of the new adoptive parents happiness and the birth parents sadness is so awful.

I wonder why the adoptive parents were 'offered' the chance to adopt children who have parents, surely there are genuine orphans in Ethiopia?

It is quite heart breaking. When the adoptive parents said no to the birth parents coming to the airport, I just felt so heart broken for the birth parents.

It puts my own fears and worries into perspective.

Adoption is so complex!

I am amazed when I think of the comparison with my own adopted son that he was so well prepared for the adoption (obviously totally different circumstances and UK domestic adoption) but still he left foster family who he loved and was so at home with us quite quickly. I think the preparation was so different.

This is all heartbreaking.

[Lilka]

The preparation on the agencies part was awful - if you've seen the first two parts, I think you've seen the bit where the agency decided the best way to take the children from their parents to the orphanage was to trick them into thinking they were going to get some candy and then having the parents leave when the children weren't in the room. Presumably to avoid having to deal with the children not wanting to leave their parents, or the parents changing their minds. It made me feel sick

Whilst there are orphans in Ethiopia (who have lost both their parents) who also don't have extended family who can care for them, there is once again a demographic mismatch between waiting parents and orphans. There aren't many "true" orphans living in orphanages in the desirable age range for waiting parents, after years and years of international adoption. The reality is, quite a lot of adoptions from Ethiopia are not adoptions of children with no parents or no extended family who could care for the child. As an aside, you need to be careful when you see 'orphan statistics' - frequently you see claims there are ~140/150 million orphans worldwide etc...actually, that's an estimate which includes all children who have only lost one parent, and do have one living parent still. So it's incredibly misleading. The current estimate of "true" orphans worldwide is about ~20 million. Adoption agencies - well, some try and act ethically, but some are just not much bothered by ethics at all.

[Italiangreyhound]

I am watching part three, it is just so painful to watch.

[Italiangreyhound]

Watched it all, the clips on Mercy Mercy the adoption from Ethiopia. Want to chat to anyone who saw it! I will be away so may not get back to you straight away. It leaves a very lasting impression!

[MrsM2509]

I watched the 7thepisode of love is not Enough lastnight, absolutely heart breaking. I couldn't sleep for thinking about it. I don't want to give anything away for anyone who hasn't watched it, but it certainly has got me thinking ahead today.

[Bringonthesunshineplease]

I love these short documentaries. The first is hearing from Darius an amazing boy who was adopted at 6 and his experiences of adoption and the 2nd is of his adoptive mother and her experience of adopting Darius. So inspirational and Darius is amazing and resilient. Hope you enjoy too

[ladyme]

That is without question, the saddest documentary I have ever seen :(

[ladyme]

This is interesting too www.againstchildtrafficking.org/category/operation-masho-ethiopia/

[Lilka]

Found another slightly older but good one that I'd given up hope of finding!

"Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go" broadcast in 2009 on PBS, part of their POV series
Here -

It was filmed at the Mulberry Bush School, a co-ed residential school for roughly primary aged children with severe emotional and behavioural difficulties. Most of their children are in foster care (some having exhausted tens of placements), but some are adopted. This program focusses on 3 of the boys there.

This film has no voice overs or background narration, but subtitles explain what's going on where necessary. Instead, it's just scenes of school (and weekend/evening) life. The lack of back story or explanations might be confusing at points, so at the bottom here I've included links to a couple of articles about what the school do and the children who come to them.

I found it very moving and interesting and I hope you all will as well

If you don't have time to watch the whole thing, I'd still read the articles anyway!

Fantastic Guardian article from 2010 - here

And DM article actually only from a few days ago. Yes, I'd even make an exception and read the DM in this case - here

[Bringonthesunshineplease]

Wondering if there are any recent ones to add to this list. When being assessed/ approved I found this list and links invaluable.

[Hels20]

Not adoption - but fostering. BBC2 are doing a 4 part series every Sunday - Protecting our Foster Kids. First one was last Sunday. You need a box of tissues to get through it.

[Sleepyhoglet]

I really wonder why these sorts if things are filmed. Does the beneficial publicity for adoption/fostering outweigh the possible damage to children such as the girls from protecting our foster children from being on tv

[Sleepyhoglet]

I really wonder why these sorts if things are filmed. Does the beneficial publicity for adoption/fostering outweigh the possible damage to children such as the girls from protecting our foster children from being on tv

[Sleepyhoglet]

I am watching the Ethiopian adoption programme. Shocking. Completely take for granted the support we have in this country. It seems so corrupt. Those children blatantly had monetary worth to the agency

[Sleepyhoglet]

Just seen the bit where the birth parents (Ethiopian documentary) ask if they might have some financial compensation to start a business (to them £100 would probably be more than enough) and to be told not that is illegal. I bet the adopters have paid the agency danadopt and they have benefitted from the whole process. Disgusting

[Sleepyhoglet]

The Danjsh mother is horrible. Such a cold unwelcoming family for those children. They don't speak the language, don't know the country, completely new house and the mother expects then to just be her perfect children. Bloody hell. I know our adoption process has it's faults but I am grateful for it. How can this be allowed. I really don't think think inter country adoption is right as it can be so unregulated. Of course there are beautiful exceptions.

[Kitsandkids]

That poor little Ethiopian girl. What was going on at the dining table? Unless I got the wrong end of the stick, the mum got so annoyed because she thought the little girl was making slight head movements on purpose? So bloody what?! I'm always telling my 2 foster sons to sit properly at the table, stay in their seats, don't use their fingers etc - I'm not going to send them away because of it! I played that bit again because I honestly couldn't see the girl doing anything, and I still couldn't the second time. All I saw was her looking towards her mother because she knew her mother was cross and she was a bit wary about what was going on. Poor kid.

[Sleepyhoglet]

Were the adaptive parents just stupidly naive? They are naive or cruel or both. They essentialy stole children who had parents and expected them to be grateful for being given a western life.

[dimples76]

Did anyone watch 'Find me a Family' which is on BBC IPlayer - I found the title a bit misleading as the plan for one of the children was to remain within their birth family. I was also a bit shocked by the matching committee where prospective adopters were scored points - I know there was more to the decision they made than that but it just seemed to me to be at odds with the approach of the SWs who knew the child and Bfamily's approach especially given the proposed contact arrangements.

I think part two is on next Monday.