National Adoption Month - 2013

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Closure screened at the Minnesota Transracial Film Festival to a nearly full audience this past weekend. We spent the following day as guests at the Adoption Policy and Reform Collaborative Conference - the first ever adoptee led conference of its kind.  It was well attended and packed with excellent panels of adoption professionals, therapists, researchers, educators and activists.  Our trip to Minneapolis was one to remember! 

For me, the highlight was seeing my wife Angela, surrounded by a sea of other adult adoptees.  Each came from different backgrounds, and have different views on adoption – nonetheless, it was a joy to witness the comfort they felt with each other. Angela often speaks of how adoptees are put in difficult situations of managing others expectations and emotions. If adoptees choose to search for birth parents, they may feel the pressure to assure their adoptive parents that they aren’t being “replaced,” and in an effort to maintain positive relationships with birth parents, they might feel pressured to suppress any negative feelings about relinquishment, so as not to make their birth mother/father feel uncomfortable.  As a non-adopted person, I can see that’s a difficult tightrope to walk.  In addition, adoptees sometimes feel pressured to “educate” prospective adoptive parents by sharing the challenges that come with being transracially adopted.  Being around other adoptees, I knew it was one of the rare times she would not feel any of these pressures. 

One unexpected highlight of the weekend was meeting and spending time with Jenni “Fang” Lee, known by many from the documentary: Somewhere Between.  The three of us laughed a lot, talked politics, and conversed about heavy and light topics alike – and none of us wanted our time together to end! Angela and Fang got along like kindred spirits, who shared a greater commonality than just being adopted – both have had intimate parts of their lives shared on camera for public critique and consumption. 

I’m thankful for where we have traveled and screened the film this month of November.  Strangers (new friends) helped bring Closure to both Indianapolis and Webster, New York.  My family and hometown community came together for a screening in Santa Rosa, California and with the help of a magazine article we also screened at Seattle Pacific University.  National Adoption Month will come to a close for us on Thursday in Seattle and Friday in Chico, CA.

 Our DVD/digital download will be released through our website starting December 1st, just in time for Christmas!   

Kickstarter, Screenings, DVD Release...

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It's been a little while since we've updated you, so here's what's going on with Closure!

- Oct/Nov Screenings: The next few months are packed with screenings! We're headed back to the Pickford in Bellingham WA 10/5-10/6, and screening in Seattle 10/14 at Bethany Community Church with a Q&A and roundtable discussion after.  November is National Adoption Month, which will bring Closure to several cities around the country.  We will be screening again in Seattle, as well as Portland, Albuquerque NM, and Minneapolis/St Paul MN.  We also have Tugg screenings set up in Indianapolis, Chicago, Santa Rosa CA, Boise ID, and Webster NY.  Remember, each Tugg screening has to pre-sell a certain number of tickets in order to get booked, so if you have friends/family in any of those cities, make sure to tell them about the screening in advance!

- Kickstarter Rewards: These were mailed out this evening! (10/1) The employees at the Post Office hated us the moment we walked in the door.  Enemies aside, I'm thrilled that our deliveries will be on time as promised, and those who ordered the DVDs/downloads will have their copy way before our wide release!  For those receiving a digital download of the film/soundtrack, we'll send you a separate email with your download code no later than Thursday (check your spam folder if you don't see it by then). Be sure to snap a pic of your new DVD/package/postcard, post it on Facebook/Twitter and tag Closure in it! As an independent production, we rely on YOU to help spread the word about the film.  After you watch it, please share your thoughts on the film with us (and your friends)!

- DVD/Digital Download for Sale: For many who missed out on the Kickstarter campaign, we're on schedule to have the DVD/digital download available for purchase through our website by December.  We will however be selling DVDs in person at select screenings in Oct/Nov, so if you happen to make it to one of those, you'll have the chance to purchase.   

We appreciate your continued support for this film!

Bryan buried in Kickstarter packages! 

Screenings for November 2013 - National Adoption Month

CLOSURE - now playing at (your local theater)

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We're excited to announce a partnership with Tugg to help bring CLOSURE into local movie theaters across the United States!  In recent years, Tugg has been successful in helping many indie films get one-off screenings in theaters based on their crowdsourcing model.  While Tugg is financially risk-free for all parties involved (host, filmmaker, theater), it does require effort through crowdsourcing to help pre-sell enough tickets to ensure the screening is booked.  We've had interest from a handful of adoption groups and agencies about screening CLOSURE, and I feel Tugg is a wonderful resource to help make those screenings happen! 

 

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How it works: 

  • YOU select the theater, date, & time, Tugg reserves the theater
  • Tugg provides you with an event page for your screening - people can buy tickets through this event page
  • Tugg provides you with promotional tools & stategies
  • All of the costs involved with the screening are covered by the Threshold (a certain amount of tickets that need to sell in order for the event to take place), which means the only money you pay is for a ticket to the film itself.  
  • You can eventize your screening by making it a Fundraiser or hosting an Introduction, Discussion, or Q&A
  • If the event meets the threshold the screening is confirmed and you (the "host") receive 5% of tickets sales following the event.  If the event does not meet the threshold it is called off and no one is charged for the tickets they reserved. 

The CLOSURE title page can be found here.  For more information about how Tugg works visit their FAQ page.  If you are interested in screening CLOSURE through Tugg, don't hesitate to email me as I'd love to help promote it with you!

Angela's birth family attends Bellingham screening

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Last weekend I fulfilled a dream that I’ve had for a couple of years.  Closure screened in front of two sold out audiences in Bellingham, Washington at the Pickford Film Center.  Bellingham is the town where Angela was raised, and where her parents still reside.  To add to the festivities, Angela’s birth mother (Deborah) and birth sister (Carolyn “Na-Na”) flew out from Chattanooga, Tennessee to be in attendance.  The first stop after picking them up at the SeaTac airport was a Ferris Wheel ride on Seattle's waterfront.  With both Angela and Na-Na possessing a slight fear of heights, there were tears of laughter as we swung, suspended in the air, with breathtaking views of the water and Seattle skyline.  In retrospect, this was symbolic of the emotional "ride" that was to be this entire weekend.  

I shouldn’t be the one to speak to this, but I imagine it was difficult for Deborah to watch the film, and relive some of those moments and get a glimpse into Angela's lifelong struggle and desire to know where she came from.  After the Q&A of the first showing, I stood in the lobby and watched person after person go up to both Deborah and Na-Na, hugging them, thanking them for coming, offering kind words about their courage, and thanking them in general for opening up their lives for the film.  It was truly touching.

Many of you were unable to get in to the show, and several of you even asked the theater manager to bring the film back.  Good news! They listened to you and have invited Closure back in October, to be a part of the Pickford's annual Doctober Festival (a month long celebration of documentaries)!  Exact showing dates/times are still being finalized and will be announced at a future date.   In the meantime, here are a few photos from this weekend. 

Resistance to film's title - CLOSURE

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This last 4th of July weekend, Angela and I trekked 14 hours by car down to Lake Tahoe, CA, to screen Closure at the annual PACT camp.  We were thrilled at the invitation to screen, and blessed by all of the caring transracial adoptive families that we met.  Like our trip to the Heritage Camp in June, we were inspired by the level of commitment from the parents, as they eagerly strive to better understand what it means to be a transracial family and how to raise their children in this racially divisive country.  The setting was beautiful, combined with a packed schedule of brilliant keynote speakers and workshops for the adults, engaging talk and play for the children - the overall experience was truly a pleasure for us. 

We screened Closure twice in our three days at PACT, with overwhelmingly positive responses and standing ovations each time.  In the Q&A after the first screening we were met with strong resistance from a few adult adoptees, voicing their deep concerns over the title; CLOSURE, and how the title was triggering to them. They speculated that other adoptees who haven’t experienced a sense of closure in their own story might also feel triggered in this way.  A suggestion was made that I alter the title and other parts of the film; as the defense was “This is our story, this story is meant for adoptees.”   I responded that this was not every adoptees story.  Closure is the story of Angela, Deborah, Teresa, and the others who appear in the film. Closure is not intended to be reflective of every adoptee’s story.  As the filmmaker my only allegiance is to those that opened up their lives to me for this story, and trusted me to tell their story as truthfully and honestly as possible, void of exploitation.  Although quite surprised by the statement, I did understand where the comments were coming from.  It comes from the way we all consume film – there seems to be a sort of entitlement we feel after viewing a film, often quick to project our own experiences. I'm thankful for the introspective and educated questions, as I’m sure it took courage to speak out.  However, within the subtext of their questions, some bold assumptions were made:  First, was that the title “Closure” is stating that Angela has in fact gained closure - nowhere in the film was this stated.  The title of the film reflects what many of us hope for in our attempt to mend broken relationships, or pursue answers to questions we’ve had for years.  Angela's search was for what she thought would bring closure (meeting her birth mother), but she learned it has actually created more questions.  With that said, it’s hard for me to personally watch the film and not see the other “characters” experience a sense of closure in their lives as well.     

In all honestly, I never expected the title to receive so much attention and response.  In each of the seven Q&A’s we’ve had since April, Angela has been asked “Do you have closure?”  With each screening I realize more and more how people will watch Closure and reflect on it in a deeply personal way.  With that reflection, the title may bring up something positive, or trigger something negatively inside them.  As the filmmaker, I’m gaining an understand that I can’t control how the film makes people feel – I had set out to merely tell the story truthfully.  When given the choice between a title that is soon forgotten, and one that elicits a response from the viewer – I will gladly choose the latter.