Watch First Person Plural now

Please enable Javascript to use Kanopy! Show me how

In this Emmy Award-nominated documentary, filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem explores themes of race, identity, assimilation, and birth family reunion. In 1966, Deann was adopted by an American family and was sent from Korea to her new home. Growing up in California, the memory of her birth family was nearly obliterated until recurring dreams led Deann to discover the truth: her Korean mother was very much alive. Bravely uniting her biological and adoptive families, Deann's heartfelt journey makes First Person Plural a poignant essay on family, loss, and the reconciling of two identities.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2000 and was broadcast nationally on PBS through the award-winning documentary series, Point of View (POV). The film had an encore presentation on PBS along with its follow-up, In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee, on August 10, 2010.

"Since its debut in 2000, First Personal Plural has become a milestone in documentary film and adoption narratives...I highly recommend it for use in the classroom. It provides an effective introduction to the issues raised by adoption across borders and invariably provokes in-depth discussions around broader issues of transnational migration, gender, kinship, race, and multiculturalism." - Eleana Kim, Ph.D., Department of Anthropology, University of Rochester

AWARDS & SCREENINGS

Emmy Award Nomination, Outstanding Achievement in the Craft of Directing 2000

Grand Jury Prize, Best Documentary, San Francisco International Film Festival 2000

Best Documentary, DocAviv 2000

Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival 2000

Running Time

61 mins

Year

2000

Kanopy ID

1049880

Filmmakers

Deann Borshay Liem

Languages

English

Subjects

Documentaries > Ethnicity & Identity

Documentaries > Women & Society

Social Sciences > Race & Class Studies

Social Sciences > Sociology

Documentaries

Staff Picks

Watch now

Comments (3)

aileen-kroll-1

University of Maryland - College Park•5 months ago

Such a compelling story and so well told. Thank you for sharing the complexities/challenges of a revealed life.

Anna

Kanopy Staff•1 year ago

A fantastic documentary sharing an intimate glimpse into the life of a Korean American adoptee who grew up searching for her cultural identity. Deann carefully guides the viewer along her personal journey shedding light onto the complex history behind the Korean War and the emotional ...Read more

Deann

New Day Films•2 years ago•Filmmaker

My hope is for this film to be used as a tool for discussing difficult issues — race, assimilation, family, cultural identity, adoption — and their influence on our lives. Please be sure to check out my follow-up adoption film,IN THE ...Read more

New Day Films

Her passport said she was Cha Jung Hee. She knew she was not. So began a 40-year deception for a Korean adoptee who came to the US in 1966. Told to keep her true identity a secret from her new American family, this eight-year-old girl quickly forgot she was ever…

Jessie E. Taylor

In 2006, a group of young people of different nationalities, backgrounds, attitudes and political views took a trip to the Baxter Detention Centre. The stories of the people they met behind the razor wire surprised, moved and challenged them. We Will Be Remembered For This documents their journey. It is…

Laura Simon Productions

Directed by a schoolteacher, this film became a lightning bolt in the immigration debate as the Rockefeller Foundation labeled it "One of the most important films on American race relations." Hoover Elementary is located in Pico-Union, known as the 'Ellis Island' of Los Angeles. After the passage of Proposition 187…

Arifa Javed

Immigration is a hot-button political issue these days, but, unsurprisingly, that contentious, narrow debate tells only part of the story. This film seeks to broaden the discussion by turning attention to Indian immigrants, an emerging and essential part of the immigration conversation. Highly educated and rapid in their collective progression…

Film Movement Exclusives

Even though no Jews lived in the historic Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria before the 1967 Six Day War, it is now home to hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers, who are almost as diverse in their outlooks, origins, ideologies, and socioeconomic backgrounds as Israeli society itself. How did…

New Day Films

Immigrant Nation! is a feature documentary about the modern immigrant rights movement in 2006 and '07. In particular, it is the story of the struggle of Elvira Arellano, a single mother from Chicago, who fought her deportation. The film also interweaves the stories of individuals, organizations, activists and community leaders…

Interfilm Productions

The film starts with Roxanne, a pretty 41-year-old woman, flying to Morocco for the eighth time in two years. She has already submitted the sponsorship papers to bring her lover, Abdelrafour, who is 14 years younger, to Canada as her husband. Roxanne is a worldly, confident, self-confessed short-tempered woman who…

Documentary Educational Resources

A true gem of 1970s American cinema verite filmmaking re-released! The Phans of Jersey City fills a gap in our cinematic history of Vietnam by documenting a South Vietnamese family recently relocated to the United States. Evoking the realist style and domestic drama of An American Family, the filmmakers lived…

Part of the Series: Shaping of the American Nation Collection

The hopes and conflicts of all immigrants are seen through the eyes of the boy Janek, and in a warm scene at the program's close, Janek the man looks at his dreams of a lifetime being realized through his grandchildren. An LCA release. Awards: Chicago, Columbus, National Educational, Oakland Film…

First Run Features

After his girlfriend leaves him, McElwee takes a voyage along the original route followed by General William Sherman - but rather than cutting a swath of destruction designed to force the Confederate South into submission, as Sherman did, McElwee searches for love, camera in hand, "training his lens with phallic…

Kino Lorber Edu

In the state of Judea in southern Africa, violence, poverty and sectarianism are endemic. The neighboring Alliance has invaded under the pretense of restoring peace. Bloody street battles accompany the dictatorship's incursion into its weaker satellite. Promises of a transition to open democratic rule are marred by summary executions and…

BrunoFilms

Samsara: (Sanskrit) Perpetual repetition of birth and death from the past through the present to the future, through six illusory realms: Hell, Hungry Spirits, Animals, Fighting Spirits, Man and Heaven. Samsara documents the struggle of the Cambodian people to rebuild a shattered society in a climate of war and with…

First Person Plural

New Day Films

Comments (3)

Related videos

PARENTAL CONTROLS

Your parental controls are ON. Please enter your pin.