Found (2021 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Amanda Lipitz
- Anita Gou
- Jane Zheng
- Jenny Raskin
- Jamie Schutz
| Found | |
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 Official poster | |
| Directed by | Amanda Lipitz |
| Produced by |
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| Cinematography | Casey Regan |
| Edited by | Penelope Falk |
| Music by | Toby Chu |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Netflix |
Release dates |
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Running time | 98 minutes |
| Countries |
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Found is a 2021 documentary film directed and produced by Amanda Lipitz. An international co-production of the United States and China, it follows three adopted teenage girls who discover they are blood-related cousins on 23andMe and travel to China seeking answers about their identity and family history.
Found had its world premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival on October 9, 2021. It was released on October 20, 2021, by Netflix, and received critical acclaim for its emotional poignancy.
The film centers around three blood-related cousins born in China and adopted by American families:
- Chloe Lipitz, a 13-year-old girl adopted by a Jewish family living in Seattle and later Phoenix[1][2]
- Sadie Mangelsdorf, a 14-year-old girl adopted by a Christian family with divorced parents in Nashville[2][1][3]
- Lily Bolka, a 17-year-old girl adopted by a large Catholic family in Oklahoma City[4][2][1]
Synopsis
The film follows three adopted teenage girls who discover they are blood-related cousins through the DNA testing service 23andMe.[5] After connecting with each other virtually, they meet up with each other and with genealogist Liu Hao from the company My China Roots to travel to China seeking answers about their identity and family history. They visit the sites where their parents left them, the orphanages where they stayed, and possible parents who gave up their children for adoption. Throughout, they and others wrestle with questions of identity and the implications of the one-child policy. None of the parents ultimately match with them, but in the closing moments of the film one of the possible parents matches with another girl.
Production
The director, Amanda Lipitz, is Chloe's aunt.[2] Found is her second major documentary, following 2017's Step.[6] She traveled to China three times over the course of the production, the final journey with the girls.[7] The documentary was filmed in the cinéma vérité style; Lipitz stated that respecting the girls' emotional well-being during production was a central concern.[7] Shooting was completed just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.[8]
Release
In August 2021, Netflix announced it had acquired distribution rights to the film.[9] It had its world premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival on October 9, 2021.[10][11] It was released on October 20, 2021.[12][13] The three girls reported that they were overwhelmed with correspondences from other adoptees around the world after the release.[14]
