Vivien’s Wild Ride (2026): Adoption on the Small Screen

008 | Vivien’s Wild Ride (2026): Adoption on the Small Screen

 

Vivien Hillgrove has been a film and sound editor all her adult life. She’s worked with many filmmaking greats: Francis Coppola, Phil Kaufman, Milos Forman, Walter Murch, and celebrated documentary filmmakers Lourdes Portillo and Deann Borshay Liem. But when Vivien’s eyesight starts to deteriorate, the shame and loneliness she felt in 1964 come flooding back—having relinquished her baby as a teenage, unwed mother when there were few choices for women was a loss that resonated throughout her life. Now she faces a new feeling of isolation and loss. Recalling her resilience as a young woman, she summons it anew and reinvents herself as a person with a new way of being and seeing, an artist with a disability. Join us on this wild, a beautiful ride. 

Vivien’s Wild Ride was directed, produced, written, and co-edited by Vivien Hillgrove. 

You can watch Vivien’s Wild Ride on your local PBS station through April 2026. And click here to learn more about the virtual panel discussion with Viven, her daughter Kathleen with whom she is reunited, and members of Adoption Mosaic, Mom’s Head Films, and Mu Films on Thursday, February 26, 2026.

This episode aired on January 28, 2026. In it we discussed and/or relied upon:

For a decade, the Adoptees On podcast has been a place for adoptees to share the adoption experience. 

Haley’s new project, On Adoption, will feature the stories of first/birth parents, discussing the impact adoption has had on them, as well as on adoptees.

The Okanagan Society of Independent Filmmaking is a nonprofit society committed to supporting and celebrating local, independent filmmakers, while fostering a community of film within the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia.

Kristal’s film, Because She’s Adopted, is available for rent here. 

You can find speaker, digital creator, author, and advocate Molly Burke here.

Vivien worked on the Academy Award-winning film, The Right Stuff (1983), starring Ed Harris, long time placeholder on Sullivan’s hall pass. 

Haley would like us to reiterate that she does not have a hall pass. (Allegedly.)

The first Salvation Army Booth Maternity Home opened in 1887, and the homes operated into the late 1970s. In 2016 the Salvation Army in the UK issued a formal statement acknowledging its role in separating mothers from their babies. An apology was issued in Australia in 2022. At the time of this writing, no such apology has been issued to mothers or adoptees in the United States. 

In 2021 the United Church of Canada issued a formal apology for its role in separating mothers from their babies. The Church is not affiliated with the Salvation Army, though the two organizations often collaborate within the country. 

Sullivan has a Balfern Leather Biker Jacket from AllSaints that she loves, even though she does not do drugs. 

The Adoption Pop! theme music is The Chase by Audiogreen.

We’d love to hear what you thought of this episode, and what you’d like for us to cover in the future. Find, follow, like, and subscribe to Adoption Pop! at our website, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. 

Podcast journalist Haley Radke is at adopteeson.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. 

Filmmaker Kristal Parke is at kristalparke.net, on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. 

Cultural critical Sullivan Summer is at sullivansummer.com, on Instagram, and on Substack.