Customer Reviews

The Red String

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4 star:		(1)
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I have seen this film, and I recommend it highly. Its richness grows as you revisit this treasure. While the subjects are single moms who have adopted girls from China, the messages of this documentary film by Elizabeth Pearson encompass much more. The dialogue reflects the thoughts of the children and their parent about many facets of their adoption, their lives here and how it might have been different had they stayed in China. The kids I have shown it to (about 12 kids, ranging from 7 to 11), have really gotten absorbed in it. It sparked lots of discussion and dialogue.

This is a keeper - for kids over 7-ish, parents and extended family! Play it again for your kids, and let them stop it, talk about different passages, how the words of the kids in the film compare to their own experiences. This is the first film I have seen which features kids 10-12 talking about their adoptions in very direct ways (two of the girls are much younger). My kids and their friends seem to be very comfortable watching their peers, and thinking about their words. They related well to the comment from one, to the effect that it is "very cool" to have friends that are like you, who lived in an orphanage, because most other kids can't understand what this would feel like.

Parents of all types will get much from this gentle, nonjudgmental inventory of many of the parenting issues our internationally formed families must address as our kids mature from infants, school aged and into their teens. Comments address a wide range of issues, including navigating and integrating our Euro-American heritage with their Chinese roots, and imagining communication with birthparents. This film is also about the hopes these mothers have for their China born daughters, to feel comfortable finding their place in this country, and becoming global citizens.

This film is a lovely gift to our entire Families with Children from China (FCC) community - to our kids, our parents, and to our extended families that are open to learning a little more about who we are. In fact, the larger international adoption community, especially from Asian countries, may find lots of value in this movie, and their tween-age, and teenage kids will relate well to those in this documentary.

Allison Branscombe

What critics are saying about Elizabeth's "The Red String"...

"Is it too early to give Elizabeth the Academy's lifetime achievement award? I think not. Steven Spielberg, you could learn a thing or two from her. I laughed. I cried."
- Roger Ebert

"More twists than a pretzel factory run by contortionists."
- USA Today

"This is the last movie you will ever have to watch!!! It's just that good!"
- Dave Garr

Single mothers going to adopt, should watch this video. Its not really about couples adopting. But its interesting to hear the childrens' point of view on adoption.

As soon as I realized that I was going to pursue an adoption through China I immediately went about trying to find as many books and videos as possible relating to international adoption. As a single parent adopting from China one of the videos I ordered right away was The Red String by Elizabeth Pearson (25 minutes long, ©2004).

The Red String is a documentary that focuses on four single women and the daughters they adopted from China. What made the video standout among others is that the girls who were adopted as infants are older in the video and thus they are able to articulate their feelings and discuss what it meant to them not just to be adopted from China, but to be adopted by single women.

I thought that the video was insightful and presented a unique perspective on single-parent adoption and how it may impact the child adopted. While I think this video will interest anyone in the adoption community as it touches on some common threads for everyone, I especially recommend The Red String to all single perspective parents, whether adopting from China or elsewhere.

It was great for a single parent adopting from China, my only complaint is that I wish it had been more in depth and been longer (I believe it was only 30 minutes). This is a topic I'm very interested in so I am hungry for a lot of information and felt this fell a little short. I did love what I gained from it though, and I know I will watch it again.