Abandoned Adopted Here

Identity, many of us take for granted. We see ourselves reflected back as we gaze into the eyes of our parents. What if your image isn't the same? What then?
An independent documentary looking at identity, adoption, transracial adoption and being British-Chinese

  • Lucy Sheen
    Director
  • Lucy Sheen
    Writer
  • Lucy Sheen
    Producer
  • Ronit Meranda
    DOP
    Mbeu Yosintha (Seeds of Change), Wild Law
  • Cathy Cuvelier
    Sound
  • Tim Bamber
    Sound
    Glass House Garden, Mbeu Yosintha, Recommended Washing Powder, Halfway at Sea, Liars, Sorinne, _scape,Disaster Movie, To The Last Syllable of Recorded Time, ,
  • Ronit Meranda
    Eidtor
    Changing the World is the Only Fit Work for a Grown Man, Support Wi en Wi Go Bi, God Has a Voice, She Speaks Through Me, The Palm Tree, Mbeu Yosintha (Seeds of Change)
  • Lucy Sheen
    Eidtor
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    38 minutes 59 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 19, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Prores
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Minnesota Transracial Film Festival 2015
    Parkway Theater, Minnesota, USA
    October 10, 2015
    USA premiere
  • Festival of Dyslexic Culture
    The Metropolitan University, London, UK
    October 10, 2015
  • OpenNest: Adoption Conference - The Adoptee Voice
    London, UK
    November 9, 2015
  • SOAS
    London
    United Kingdom
    April 7, 2016
    UK Premiere
Director Biography - Lucy Sheen

Lucy Sheen: made in Hong Kong and exported to the UK as a transracial adoptee. Lucy is a dyslexic actor, published writer, (nom de plum Lucy Chau Lai-Tuen) filmmaker, trainer and transracial adoptee advocate. She loves Dim sum, Yorkshire puddings and tea. She is of East and Southeast Asian heritage.
Her first professional job, the female lead in the ground breaking British feature film PING PONG (1986), directed by Po Ch’ih Leong. The first ever UK feature to look at the history and issues of the British-Chinese community.
Other feature films include Business As Usual (1987) Secrets & Lies (1996), Something Good:The Mercury Factor (2013)
Theatre credits include: Julius Caesar Portia -Bristol Old Vic (1987); Drink the Mercury Ioka nominated for a TMA (first British East Asian actress to be nominated for a major UK theatre award 1990); Hungry Ghosts Tim Luscombe, nominated for an OFFIE for best actress 2010. Plenty directed by the award winning
Thea Sharrock (2011). Sugar-Coated Bullets of the Bourgeoisie (2016), Snow In Midsummer RSC (2017), The Scar Test Soho Theatre (2017)
TV credits include: Prime Suspect 2; Lovejoy; Eastenders and Nighty Night series 2. Call The Midwife (2017), Casualty (2017) Zapped, The Good Neighbour, Shadow and Bone, Silent Witness, The Witcher, Stillness, Fortune Cookies
Radio credits include: Words On A Night Breeze, Bound Feet and Western Dress. Lucy is currently in postproduction for her independent documentary Abandoned, Adopted, Here [http link http://youtu.be/--KbumU3D_M]
2011 Lucy wrote & performed her solo theatre piece There Are Two Perfectly Good Mes: One dead, the other unborn a dramatic solo performance looking into the issues of growing up as a transracial adoptee.
2012 Lucy’s short play WAITING was selected for the REDfest new writers competition at The Old Red Lion Pub Theatre
Lucy has just won two small writing commissions for 2015
Re:Play writing bursary for Nimble Fish
The Royal Court (Open Court) Commonword
Pains Plough/Tamasha Come To Where I’m From: London - now available by their free App (Come To Where I’m From)
As well as completing the above commissions.
ShoFu, Wianbu Pi was read as part of the 2017 Women and War festival. It is now being adapted (by Lucy) in to a limited TV series in association with Paradox House

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Director’s Statement:
There was a brief period in my life when I knew without certainty who and what I was. For the first six years of my life I truly believed that I was like everyone else. I was a white Caucasian child growing up in rural England.
What a blow to find out shortly after I’d started school that I was not what I thought I was. I was in fact a transracially adopted Hong Kong Chinese foundling. One of one hundred and six, the first ever group of children to be transracially adopted by English families during the late 50s to early 60s.
One could say that from that point it was all down hill. My formative years revolved around trying to get to grips with who and exactly what I was. So when I was contacted by BAAF (British Adoption and Fostering) asking me whether I wanted to participate in their research study on Chinese adoptees the door swung open again and I began to wonder about my birth parents. I was curious to know, had any of the other foundlings that were adopted in the UK shared my struggle to find an identity. Did any of the other British East Asians that I knew, how did they view their own identity?
The saying if you want something doing right then you should do it yourself, in this particular case holds true. This is my first film as a Producer, director and writer. But the subject matter is so close to my heart and the treatment and approach to both adult adoptees and British East Asians needed to be at once both sympathetic and empathetic. The first Producer that I hired turned out to be neither and was not interested in the story and the connection of emotions, thoughts, ideas and perceptions that I wanted explore.
I’d like to think that I have learnt a lot from this inaugural experience. That the documentary that I have produced will spark debate and discussion about the place and the nature of belonging in the UK for an East Asian. That it will allow greater and more frank discussion amongst the professionals in the adoption profession about culture, ethnicity and race.

I don’t claim and neither do I aim to offer solutions – but to provoke communication. To illicit interest in people and circumstances that many times and oft are side barred or ignored.

I have been able to combine two things that are very important in my life the fact that I’m a transracial adoptee and the fact that I’m a British East Asian Artists.