Out of a South Korean Orphanage: Glenn Morey's Story About Finding His Voice and Creating a Documentary [S5E4]

Glenn Morey has worked in film since 1981—as a writer, creative director, and a commercial and documentary filmmaker for many years. His documentary “Side by Side” is an Official Selection of the San Diego Asian Film Festival (organized by Pacific Arts Movement), and the Boston Asian American Film Festival, among many other awards.

Key Links

• Website: sidebysideproject.com
• FB: facebook.com/SidebySideDocumentary/
• Twitter: @sidebysideproj

Glenn's personal story, as an inter-country adoptee from South Korea, was the initial motivating and creative force behind "Side by Side.” And in this interview, he delves into his own experience to build upon many common elements of the South Korean adoption experience.

What follows in this podcast is a really interesting and layered talk on the complexity of the adoption experience for many South Koreans, and how giving them a platform to find their voice is so essential.

Below are some (but not all!) of the most compelling aspects of the talk, ranging from Glenn’s realization that he had operated under a supplied narrative about his own racial identity, to the importance of communicating and being honest with your adopted children about the complete picture of their ethnic identity.

[#1 Some Details on Glenn’s Adoption from Seoul]

• Glenn retells the details of how he came to be claimed from city hall in Seoul, later placed in an orphanage, and then how he found himself on a plane with 81 other babies to the U.S.
• This whole experience would eventually become the catalyst for “Side by Side” and would lead him to find how fortunate he had been to become adopted and have such a relatively positive experience.
• He was adopted by a loving family who lived in Littleton, Colorado. He joined 3 biological daughters, was the first of four adopted children in the family, and had multiple siblings.

[#2 Important Conversations About Race]

• Because of Glenn’s experience with not having the proper amount of racial mirroring and acknowledgment during his upbringing, he didn’t fully understand from a sociological and psychological perspective that he was Asian until he was in his middle age. He understood it intellectually, just not culturally.
• So when considering transracial adoptees, he wants to stress the importance of having open, honest acknowledgments about race and what is apparent to the child. Don’t suppress it and don’t shut out their culture for your own.
• Glenn reminds us that a good rule of thumb when having conversations about race with your child is that if you’re afraid to have the conversation, you should consider having it anyways, despite the discomfort you feel because it really is that important!
• Glenn talks about how there was zero acknowledgement in his own story and he subsequently built up an identity that didn’t include the most essential aspects of his story.

[#3 Film and Interview as a Platform for the Voiceless]

• After he worked through the counter-narratives of his adoptive experience in the U.S., he began to understand that his story was actually a cliche when compared with other Korean American adoptees.
• There was immense power in having that reinforcement of other South-Korean adoptees who had the same experience in America. And through interviews and what would lay the groundwork for the “Side by Side” project, Glenn gave a platform for those who hadn’t shared their story virtually anyone else before. He helped them find their voice.

[#4 The Traditional Narrative of Adoption for Glenn]

• During the interview, he talks about some of the reasons for adoptees not telling their story. The most prominent one being that adoptive parents were told that assimilation into the culture had to be seamless--this generally meant that ignoring the culture of the adopted child was seen as the best way to achieve this assimilation.
• And because the standard narrative of adoption was often: “You are extremely lucky to have escaped poverty and abject conditions.” Most adoptees Glenn interviewed didn’t feel comfortable subverting this traditional narrative. They felt reluctant to go against that sentiment of how fortunate they were.

More details at: https://adoptionnow.com/podcast/out-of-a-south-korean-orphanage-glenn-moreys-story-about-finding-his-voice-and-creating-a-documentary

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