Have you ever seen a movie that tugged at your heart and moved you to tears? Have there been many movies you have seen where you could relate the storyline to your life? A new documentary called Closure did just that for me. I felt many similarities to Angela Tucker, the main character in this powerful film. Her feelings, emotions, and fears are all things I felt when I was searching for my birth family.
Angela is a transracial adoptee who decided to search for her birth mother. “Closure” is the bold true life story about identity and one thing most adoptees ache for especially in a closed adoption; closure.
Movies about adoption or that are adoption related are becoming more mainstream. Some examples of recent adoption related movies are “August Rush,” “The Blind Side”, “Juno”, “The Odd Life of Timothy Green”, “Despicable Me” and “Losing Isaiah” just to name a few. Some of these movies portray adoption/ foster care well; others do not.
I cried from beginning to end watching “Closure”. It is emotional and powerful. I love how it showed all sides of the adoption triad as Angela searched for her biological family. Her family was honest and heartfelt with their feelings as were her birth mother and birth father. As an adoptee myself wanting closure while growing up, I understood where Angela was coming from.
Speaking for myself, I know that finding my birth mother in no way replaced my wonderful family that I was placed with. It was the curiosity and similarities I was searching for, that I ached for. Finding my biological family did not mean I loved my family any less or that my mom was any less my mom. This film was beautifully created by Angela’s husband to educate, lessen myths and stereotypes relating to adoption and I believe the film did just that.
After watching “Closure” I knew I had to contact Angela and tell her how moved I was after watching her story. I found her blog and emailed her. Stunned and shocked I received a response only hours later. She was very down to earth and had such a sweet personality. We wrote back and forth for a bit. She told me that she would love it if I wrote a review of the film and even agreed to answer a few questions I had. Here are the questions and answers from our interview.
Question: “After finding and meeting your birth family, how have those relationships grown and developed?”
Answer: “At the beginning of this journey I’d always imagined that upon meeting my birth mother, father and siblings that we’d instantaneously know each other and become fast friends. But, the reality is – we are complete strangers albeit with a primal bond. I’ve enjoyed getting to know my birth sister better via text messaging. My birth mother and I have really grown in our relationship as she’s been out to visit me on the west coast three times now, each time learning more things about my childhood. Those visits were overwhelming (in a much longed for and positive kind of way). It’s fun to be able to interact and see photos and posts from the rest of my birth family members, too. But, it’s quite the reality going from having one (large) family, to all of the sudden trying to create meaningful relationships with many others who live in different time zones, and for which so many life experiences are not shared. It’s a challenge that I’m fortunate to have.”
Question: “Since “Closure” was released do you and Bryan see yourselves making another adoption related documentary in the future?”
Answer: “It’s highly unlikely – however Bryan has found documentary making to be more than a mere hobby to the freelance videography life. I’m still amazed that he was able to craft such a complex story in such a poignant way without any film training, and while working full time in real estate! He has recently transitioned in as a few film projects in his queue, including a couple of which center around adoption and foster care.”
“We’ve been so fortunate to be able to travel and witness firsthand the lives that the film has impacted, but sharing my adoption story has felt incredibly vulnerable at times for both myself and the rest of my family, too. I have refocused my efforts to speaking about openness in adoption, foster care and facilitating workshops on race relations within a transracial adoption context. I hope to continue to be able to speak in different venues as it provides an opportunity to have genuine and complex discussions in a safe space, which is something I greatly enjoy.
I am often asked if I’d allow Bryan to film a meeting if I were to ever find my birth sister, but the answer is “No.” There are some parts of my story that I have chosen to keep private, and this meeting would be put in that category.”
I highly recommend Closure to anyone and everyone. For those involved in adoption it is an excellent film that portrays an adoptee’s perspective. I truly feel it is a film that could be watched over and over again and you can continue to learn something new.
