Searching for Go-Hyang

Searching for Go-Hyang Photo
Photo courtesy of Women Make Movies (www.wmm.com)

Genre: Documentary
Ethnicity: Korean American
Themes: Cultural Crossing/Return Visit, Family and Intergenerational Issues (Adoption), Identity/Representation
Date: 1998
Running Time: 31 min.
Director/Producer: Tammy Tolle
Availability: Women Make Movies
DVD $195 Purchase/$65 Rental
Synopsis
A moving personal documentary, Searching for Go-Hyang traces the return of twin sisters to their native Korea after a fourteen year absence. Sent away by their parents for the promise of a better life in the US, they instead suffered mental and physical abuse by their adoptive parents, including the erasure of their cultural heritage and language. Reunited with their biological parents and brothers, the young women explore their past in an attempt to reconnect with their "Go-Hyang", their homeland, which they find they may not have a place in anymore. Thousands of Korean and Chinese girl babies have been brought to the US for adoption in the last twenty years. This beautiful video is a rare feminist look at the issues of cross-cultural adoption and national identity. (Courtesy of Women Make Movies)


Review
Chen, Jennifer.  "Rooftop Film Screenings."  Tribes.
http://www.tribes.org/cgi-bin/form.pl?karticle=123


Supplementary Material
Nishioka, Joyce.  "An Adopted Way of Life."  AsianWeek.  November 1998. http://www.asianweek.com/112698/coverstory.html
Article about the Korean American adoptee experience, with quotes from Tammy Tolle.
Asian American Filmography ExEAS