Three American teenagers adopted as infants in China seek out their family roots in this Netflix documentary
“Found” Rated: PG for thematic content and brief smoking. Running time: 1:37. ★★★1⁄2 (out of four)
For adopted children curious for information about their biological family, that process can be especially complicated in cases of international adoption. Complicated doesn’t necessarily mean impossible, though, and the three teens at the center of “Found,” the deeply moving new documentary on Netflix, are optimistic enough to give it a shot.
Chloe, Sadie and Lily are cousins who found each other through 23andMe. Born in China and adopted by parents in the United States, they had no blood relations here that they knew of - and then suddenly, they did. Their bond is instantaneous and palpable, and while I may be personally dubious about the business practices of various DNA ancestry companies, the genetic tests they offer are what made these relationships possible. You can’t argue with how meaningful this has been for all three.
Lily is the oldest and just starting college when the film begins (she’s now a senior at Oklahoma State University) and Chloe and Sadie are a couple years younger. All three are charming and smart and going through the usual teenage angst on top of the confused emotions surrounding the circumstances of their adoption, the result of China’s one-child policy, which was in effect from 1979 to 2015. They’re also sorting through what it means to be part of the Chinese diaspora but with no one in their immediate vicinity (they each live in different cities) with similar lived experiences.
At one point we see Sadie next to her mother as they look through old black-andwhite photos of long-dead relatives, some of whom came to the U.S. from Ireland. Sadie’s expression is unreadable but you sense some disinterest and she confirms that feeling moments later: “I don’t necessarily feel connected to them,” she says. “I know that’s part of my family, but technically they have no ties to me.”
At another point she reveals, “I used to watch this show ‘Fresh off the Boat’ and imagine my parents sort of looking like them.” These teens are yearning for something but also acknowledge they don’t always know what that is. It’s hard to articulate all their feelings but the curiosity is there. Which is why all three families decide to travel to China together and visit the orphanages where the girls were raised as infants. And also, possibly meet their biological parents if a match can be found.
Watching the documentary, you might wonder why they invited director Amanda Lipitz into their lives. They come across as private people but Lipitz had an “in”; she is Chloe’s aunt. Oddly, that information isn’t disclosed in the film. That feels like an important detail and it wouldn’t take away from the movie to acknowledge it. If anything, it would deepen it.
Their contact in China is a young woman named Liu Hao. She’s a Beijing-based genealogist who is their liaison, working to help find their biological parents. It’s a painstaking process that includes posting photos on social media in the hopes that someone might see the year of birth and the images and notice a family resemblance; then she travels to the village or city where the potential parents live and procures a saliva sample to test their DNA.