When people go searching for their biological families, what are they hoping to find? And do they ever find it? Original Kin follows three very different yet equally compelling stories of adult adoptees and their search for their biological parents. While united by lifelong questions of identity, roots, and belonging, the similarities end there.
Annie Ong: Lost and Found
After years of searching, filmmaker Jeannette Loakman had given up dreams of finding her birth mother and moved on with her life. Then, one fateful morning, Loakman suddenly finds herself with another mother, three sisters, and a guilty conscience brought on by her adoptive mother’s reaction to the news. Regretful yet fascinated by the turn of events, Jeannette takes viewers on each step as she adjusts to the trauma of a life with two mothers. Can she keep them both?
Broken Roots
Broken Roots chronicles 17-year old David’s struggle with Tourettes syndrome and Bi-polar disorder. He hopes that returning to the place of his birth, South Korea, and finding his biological parents will ease the pain at the root of his destructive behaviour and dangerous sense of disconnection. His adopted family is supportive. They want to see him get better and this is their last resort. But will meeting his biological family provide the comfort he is looking for? And can he handle the reasons why he was abandoned at 2 years of age?
Relativity
Relativity follows filmmaker Brenda Kovrig who, after meeting her birth mother, grapples with questions of identity, the nature of family, ancestral history, and genetics – not to mention deep, dark secrets. Funny and painful by turns, her journey brings her to philosophers, therapists and scientists, as she searches for clues to who she is and who she might have been. Part coming-of-age, part detective story, the film leaves no stone unturned as Brenda searches anxiously for answers while wondering if and when she’ll meet the rest of her biological family.
