Throughout the film, as filmmaker Sheila Ganz tells her story she creates a life-size sculpture of a mother holding her baby in a hospital bed using bamboo, chicken wire, burlap and plaster.  The sculpture commemorates the 10 minutes she was allowed to hold her baby.

The 57 minute documentary Unlocking the Heart of Adoption bridges the gap between birth and adoptive families
through diverse personal stories of adoptees, first/birthparents and adoptive parents in same race and transracial
adoptions interwoven with the filmmaker’s story as a birthmother revealing the enormous complexities
in their lives with illuminating historical background.

We are pleased to announce the screening of excerpts from Unlocking the Heart of Adoption and panel discussion “20 years later”
with filmmaker and first/birthmother, Sheila Ganz, Jody, adoptee, Dolores, first/birthmother, and Ginger, adoptive mother
at the Formations: Thinking Kinship through Adoption, ASAC, The Alliance for the Study of Adoption and Culture Conference
Friday, October 19, Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 Ninth Street, #290, Oakland, CA
Saturday, October 20, Oakstop, 274 14th Street, Oakland, CA

Program & Registration: http://www.adoptionandculture.org/conference-2018/

Among the numerous screenings of Unlocking the Heart of Adoption

For more information and to screen Unlocking the Heart of Adoption  email: sheila.ganz@gmail.com

2018 (c) Sheila Ganz