Reunion for Adoptees From Changfu Chang’s Documentary Films Ricki’s Promise & Meet Me on the Bridge

• Film

Voices of American Adoptees from China is a series of programs held throughout November 2019 in celebration of National Adoption Awareness Month. The series also commemorates the 40th year anniversary of the People’s Republic of China’s One-Child Policy.

In this installment of the series, watch two documentary short films on birth family reunion, Ricki’s Promise (View Higher Films, 2014) and Meet Me on the Bridge: Discovering the Truth About my Parents After 20 Years (BBC, 2017). After, join director Changfu Chang and adoptee stars of the respective films, Ricki Mudd and Kati Pohler, for a Q&A on the making of the films and updates on their stories since the films were made.

Ricki’s Promise tells the story of Chinese American adoptee Ricki Mudd. Several years after she was adopted by an American family, Ricki received an unexpected letter from her birth parents. Shortly afterward, she met them in China. For a young 12-year-old, the commotion of the trip and reunion with relatives who were strangers to her was confusing. While she couldn’t exactly tell what was going on, Ricki promised to come back when she turned 18. She kept her promise. Truly a work of captivating drama, Ricki’s Promise documents a rare tale of events and choices that pit individuals against each other in the backdrop of culture, politics, and ethics.

Meet Me on the Bridge is a short film documenting the meeting between adoptee Kati Pohler and her birth parents on the Broken Bridge in Hangzhou, China. Kati was abandoned in a market in China when she was three days old, left only with a note from her parents saying they would meet her on a famous bridge 10 and 20 years later. When the time arrived, it became a huge story in China, but Kati was living in America and had no idea. In this film, find out how she finally met her biological family.