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The Film, Waiting Children, Opens to Positive Reviews DePaul Family Services collaborates with Va Tech filmmaker to produce a film about adopting from the foster care system. Two years ago, the DePaul Adoption Program partnered with Carol Burch-Brown, an art professor and independent filmmaker at VA Tech to create a film about adoption of special needs children from the foster care system. The idea was to tell the story of this very serious social issue by giving a strong voice to the children themselves. The stories told by these remarkable children and their families are different from stereotypical and often negative media images that give communities misinformation about adopting a foster child. Initially, we had anticipated that the project would take six months to complete. However, after we began filming the children and their families the material was so rich with information that the project quickly exploded into a much more in-depth endeavor. Two and a half years later we are finally completing the film. We wanted a film that would contribute to public dialogue about adoption of special needs children, to raise public awareness about the thousands of children waiting in the foster care system, to recruit and train adoptive parents, to influence funding agencies and policy makers, and to inspire citizens to reach out and open their hearts and homes to children who are caught up in the child welfare system. We are pleased to report that in this poignant film, Carol Burch-Brown, has successfully achieved our original goals and has powerfully captured the “heart” of the difficult journey through the foster care system and into a loving, forever family. We hope to have the DVDs mass produced by the beginning of November, just in time for National Adoption Month. Anyone interested in viewing Waiting Children can borrow a copy from your local DePaul Family Services site. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the wonderful children, families, and professionals who made this film possible. We would also like to express our gratitude to VA Tech’s New Media Center, GlyphX Printing, and Department of Art and Art History for their extensive help with the production of the DVDs. And finally, we can never say enough about our appreciation for the brilliance and dedication that Carol Burch-Brown has put into this project. Carol’s extensive research and artistic skill is woven together in a way that communicates emotionally while providing tangible information about what is humanly at stake in adopting “waiting children”. We hope you enjoy the film!
Janet Barr |