Around the World in 180 Days
Part 2: Stories to Tell When I asked what she hoped to accomplish, Wendy admitted to being "very flexible, taking it a step at a time," but focused on several specific points that she sees as basic threads throughout:
- The Internet as a tool for healing.
In what may be a first for the adoption community, everyone originally scheduled to be interviewed for the film was a contact developed over the Internet - either in direct conversation or referred by a direct contact. More than half are people Wendy met here in our chat rooms and on our discussion forums since she first logged onto to the site (as Rosie47) in search of her own answers.
- Catharsis.
In telling their stories - this time for the camera - Wendy believes the power of openness will be a cleansing and healing experience, one she hopes will encourage others to take the risk and talk - perhaps for the first time. People like the 76 year-old English birthmother who still calls herself a "bad girl," and who cried when Wendy suggested that she's not bad, just human; that times have changed and the harsh judgments of times past no longer exist.
"It doesn't matter if you're an adoptee, birthmother, birthfather or adoptive parent... there is an element of pain and deep emotion in every point of the triad... intertwining circles, all connected. This seems to be something even many of our knowledgeable advocates overlook or ignore, and I believe this needs to be shown."
- Feelings of birthfathers.
Spurred by her personal experience, Wendy planned several interviews to explore these feelings, not so much the stories as the feelings - the spirit - behind the stories.
"I lived in silence for 22 years, but my husband has lived in silence for 30 years. He still won't speak about it. When I asked him if he would do an interview for the film, he said 'No.' And when our daughter, Martha, asked why, he answered, 'What you don't tell people won't hurt.' My pursuit of research on birthdads is as much to help understand him as it is to help others understand birthfathers in their lives."
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