The Film Features The Following Interracial Families The Bertelsen Family Roy and Agnes Bertelsen raised seven children in Highland Park, New Jersey: three born to them (Aline, Russ, and Amy), and four adopted (including the filmmaker, Phil — who is African American, his Caucasian adopted brother Tim, and two Korean American adopted siblings, Ann and John). Referring to his parents' decision to adopt across racial lines, Russ Bertelsen (the eldest son) described the Bertselsen clan as a "little United Nations." OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: Transracial Adoption in America takes an intimate look at this mixed race family through the eyes of the filmmaker as he reflects on his childhood, adolescence, and transition into adulthood. With his parents and eldest sibling, Aline, Phil tries to make sense of his particular experience growing up the only African American member of his family. In the film, for the first time, Phil also seeks out the black foster family who cared for him in Newark, New Jersey until the age of four. Phil returns to this household and explores the alternate family and community that both does and does not belong to him. This profile of Phil's two families/two worlds explores his conflicted feelings about his various families and their respective places in his life. The Bertelsen/Torres/White Family Phil's 11-year old African American nephew, Philip White, and his 13-year-old Korean American brother Kevin were adopted as infants by Aline Bertelsen-Torres. Growing up in a predominantly white and Latino Tucson, Arizona neighborhood, they both grapple with difficult questions about fitting in and standing out. Recognizing her younger son's need for positive African American experiences and role models, Aline sends "Little Phil" to New York City to spend a few weeks with his Uncle Phil, in Harlem. This visit provides an opportunity to explore ideas of racial awareness and pride as Uncle Phil shows his nephew the highlights of Harlem. These experiences will invariably shape some of Little Phil's coming-of-age struggles and achievements as he works through his own understanding of race, family, and individuality. Phil and Philip, uncle and nephew, provide a unique inter-generational comparison of transracial adoption's legacy in the Bertelsen family. As a trusted mentor and uncle, Bertelsen shares experiences and anecdotes with his nephew during outings and excursions that take them into traditionally black (i.e. the filmmaker's neighborhood in Harlem, New York) and traditionally white (i.e. Little Phil's home in a suburban development outside of Tucson) cultural enclaves. In the context of these often separate worlds, Phil and Philip openly discuss their mutual efforts to negotiate and feel at home in these two communities. Walt and Ellen A white couple is in the process of adopting a black baby boy into their home (in a Midwestern, rural community). Working through a Chicago adoption agency specializing in transracial adoption, Walt and Ellen meet Diane — an African American woman from the South Side of Chicago who can not afford to keep her fourth son. The film captures a delicate and difficult moment - joyous for the new adoptive parents who will bring home a new son to their home that day, and painful for the birth parent who is saying goodbye to her two-month-old son. Phil follows Walt and Diane though the process of adoption — from the parenting preparation classes tailored to people adopting transracially, to the administration and paperwork of adoption, and on to the moment of introducing their new black son to their other two biological children and extended family. The filmmaker uses this experience to gain a fuller understanding of adoption today. In the process, he is prompted to ask questions about how adoption has changed since his own adoption and what the future of adoption holds.
	Outside Looking In: Transracial Adoption In America This Documentary Film Features Three American Families Brought Together - And Sometimes Pushed Apart - By Transracial Adoption. "Over the years, I found myself wondering which factors – physical, emotional, historical, social – determine where I belong. Unable to find suitable answers in others, I looked inward. The tension between an internal and external identity, between a cultural legacy and a family history, inspired me to make this documentary. – Director, Phil Bertelsen Agnes, Phil and Roy Bertelsen • Photo by Kate Milford As a black child adopted by white parents in the 1970s and raised in a predominantly white suburb, Director Phil Bertelsen's adolescence was shaped by fond memories of a loving family as well as by difficult periods of self-examination and self-doubt. With the film OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: Transracial Adoption in America, Bertelsen goes behind the camera to introduce three families with transracially adopted children of three different generations, growing up in three different regions of the country. The director examines his 11-year-old nephew's adoption and also reveals the dramatic story of a white couple trying to adopt a black child today. Bertelsen's sister Aline and her two transracially adopted sons represent the second generation of transracial adoptions for the Bertelsen family. Finding few opportunities for his nephew, Philip, to develop an African American identity in his hometown of Tucson, Arizona, Bertelsen brings Philip to visit him in Harlem, New York. There he encourages him to explore and proclaim a black identity of his own, with results that convey important lessons of identity and self-awareness to both uncle and nephew separately. From L-R: Aline Bertelsen; Russell Bertelsen (w/ Cass, the family pet); Anne Bertelsen; John Bertelsen; Phil Bertelsen; Tim Bertelsen; Amy Bertelsen. The viewer also accompanies a third family - a Midwestern white couple - as they meet an African-American woman who is putting her two-month-old son up for adoption. The film records a rare and emotionally powerful moment - the exchange of a baby from birth parent to adoptive parent. The filmmaker's own narrative voice-over weaves these stories together, conveying the ways transracial adoption is both deeply personal and broadly political. Each family's story explores a different aspect of the many complex issues that arise when child and parent do not share the same racial background. These voices - sometimes confident, sometimes questioning, and at times frustrated - narrate a 30-year history of transracial adoptions in America. Each family's experience is influenced by differences in time (adoption in the 1970s, 1980s and the year 2001), place (New Jersey, Arizona, and Illinois) and approach (color-blind or color-conscious). Bertelsen, as both adoptee and filmmaker, provides a unique perspective that goes beyond the personal. As America struggles to understand and address its own complex racial history, OUTSIDE LOOKING IN compels viewers to get past the traditional "pro versus con" debate. Bertelsen captures the complexity of being physically bonded to one race and emotionally bonded to another. This approach allows audiences to enter this charged discussion and decide for themselves how best to raise a child across racial lines. In the film, Bertelsen explores his own conflicted ideas about where and to whom he and others like him belong. He explains, "On a personal level, I recognized my adoptive family as the people I love and trust most in the world. Yet growing up, many made me feel I was out of place in the back of the family station wagon. I could see that I was black, but I couldn't understand why that meant I belonged to a community aside from the one in which I lived - that is, the black community with which I had virtually no contact. As a child these distinctions made little sense to me. Over the years, I found myself wondering which factors - physical, emotional, historical, social - determine where I belong. Unable to find suitable answers in others, I looked inward. The tension between an internal and external identity, between a cultural legacy and a family history, inspired me to make this documentary." OUTSIDE LOOKING IN is particularly timely, as the 1990s have been punctuated by a new wave of transracial adoptions. The film supplies a voice to those directly affected by adoption policies and explores larger topics facing our society: race, family and identity. To check the broadcast schedule, please visit www.itvs.org/outsidelookingin/broadcast.htm For more information, please visit www.itvs.org/outsidelookingin The contents of this article were reprinted with permission from www.itvs.org About ITVS Since its inception in 1991, programs produced by ITVS have transformed, reinvented and revitalized the relationship between the public and public television. From ground-breaking series like THE FARMER'S WIFE and AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY to specials including Emmy Award winners SING FASTER: THE STAGEHANDS' RING CYCLE; SCHOOL PRAYER: A COMMUNITY AT WAR; GIRLS LIKE US and NOBODY'S BUSINESS, and the Peabody Award-winning TRAVIS, A HEALTHY BABY GIRL, COMING OUT UNDER FIRE and THE GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE, ITVS productions have dared to bring TV audiences face-to-face with the lives and concerns of their fellow Americans. In the process, ITVS has changed minds, opened hearts, inspired dialogue and brought viewers out of the box and into their communities and communities they might never have known about. www.itvs.org This website: Copyright © 2002 Dream World Media, LLC. / Urban Mozaik Magazine. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed in Urban Mozaik Magazine are not necessarily those of Urban Mozaik Magazine and the publisher cannot be held responsible for them. This website/publication, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced without written permission from the publisher.