MVFF44 (Bronze/Silver)

Three American teenagers, each a single daughter adopted from China, discover they are cousins through 23andMe, spurring them to confront long-withheld questions about their origins and lost histories. Filmmaker Amanda Lipitz (Step, DOCLANDS 2017) artfully documents Chloe, Sadie, and Lily from tentative first virtual meetings from their suburban homes through deepening connections as they share their private musings over why they were given up and what it would mean to find their birth parents. They decide to travel together to China in search of answers. Found masterfully braids the tender strands of each girl’s story with those of parents who suffered under China’s strict one-child policy, as well as the orphanage workers who cared deeply for the abandoned infants. The film is clear-eyed and gentle with its subjects through joyful and heart-wrenching moments, ultimately crafting an enduring portrait of the ways in which we are all profoundly connected.