Girl to visit a home she never knew
Girl to visit a home she never knew
Wednesday, July 21, 2010Some wide-angle lenses are wider than others.
Montreal filmmaker Maureen Marovitch is making a documentary about adoption in China. And she's doing it while waking up every morning in Lachine.
The Invisible Red Thread, which will show up on television early next year, focuses on Toronto teenager Vivian Lum. Next month a film crew will follow Lum on a three-week visit to Jiangxi, the province where a Canadian couple adopted her as a 5-month-old, 15 years ago.
Footage will be shot by a Chinese crew under the supervision of Changfu Chang. The Chinese-American is Marovitch's co-director on the project, and I spoke to her just after she'd had a long-distance consultation with Chang.
"I don't speak Mandarin and I've never been to China," Marovitch said. "And although the country has opened up, the presence of a foreign crew might be a bit sensitive.
"Chang is the perfect guy. He knows the ins and outs of adoption in China."
Marovitch and Chang have been using YouTube to see that Chinese footage complements what was shot in Canada. The Invisible Red Thread is the first international project for Picture This Productions, the company Marovitch, 41, formed with her partner, David Finch in 1995.
The genesis, Marovitch says, was talking to Montreal friends who have adopted babies from China and wonder about the girls who are not adopted. The phenomenon is gender-specific, because China's one-child policy, enacted in 1979, has resulted in parents giving up female newborns.
Marovitch's initial research looked at girls who don't have legal status. Their births were never registered, so in terms of attending school and plugging into the health system, they are non-persons.
"There are an uncounted number of young girls across China who aren't legally registered," Marovitch said. "That was going to be the basis of our documentary.
"We still want to do it. But it's not this film."
The story she decided to tell instead is about returning to China, which many Canadian adoptees have done in an effort to learn about their culture and their roots. The phenomenon is so common, Marovitch says, there are travel agencies who book heritage tours.
Marovitch's idea, which became The Invisible Red Thread, was to explore what an adoptee's life would have been like had she not been brought to Canada. When she travels to Jiangxi, Vivian Lum will meet Shumin, a 14-year-old girl who was adopted by the Chinese family on whose doorstep she had been abandoned.
Marovitch found Lum by putting notices on Yahoo Groups, talking to adoption agencies and "sending out a lot of emails to people who knew people." The filmmakers wanted an articulate girl who was at least 15 and had never been back to China.
Marovitch did phone interviews with candidates and evaluated video clips. A Montreal family was interested, and Marovitch was keen, but "they got cold feet about it."
"Quebec has the most Chinese adoptions," Marovitch said. "We were the first province to work with agencies over there, in 1991."
Many of the adoptees are French-speaking, however. So Marovitch's research focused on Ontario, where she found Lum. "She's very funny, very spunky and very well-spoken for her age," Marovitch said.
A sample clip of Vivian Lum is viewable at the film's website: www.theinvisibleredthread-themovie.com
Know what I like about morning radio?
Nothing, which is why I don't listen to it. But if I were a normal person who, like millions, started the day by tuning in to a favourite morning show, I'd value continuity.
It's pleasurably reassuring to be eased into your day by the same voices who did it yesterday and will do it again tomorrow. Andrew Carter, Aaron Rand, the late, great George Balcan -consummate pros who know you might have had a rough night and/ or are facing a tough day.
Then there's Daybreak.
Goodbye Mike Finnerty, hello Nancy Wood, goodbye Nancy, welcome back Mike -all within 14 months.
What a joke.
But there is continuity at CBC Montreal. The same gormless twits keep making hare-brained programming decisions. On our dime.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/mobile/iphone/story.html?id=3303194