"Given Our Chance" Documentary to be released this month

The documentary trailer for "Given Our Chance" has been released.   Alex King of A.K. Film Production and Editing, and Izidor Ruckel of Abandoned for Life/Ruckel International, are happy to announce their documentary trailer.

Click here to see the trailer. 

      San Francisco, CA, November 15, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Romanian Adoptees Alex King and Izidor Ruckel have begun filming on their new documentary, "Given Our Chance".

Alex King, the award winning filmmaker and director and editor of "Born To Be Our Children, Romanian Adoption Stories" has joined forces with Izidor Ruckel author of "Abandoned for Life" and public speaker.

Alex King is a San Francisco Bay Area resident who has received numerous awards for his Filmmaking. Among those awards are a Gold Remi at the Houston Worldfest for Film and Video Production on his documentary "Born To Be Our Children", as well as a Rising Star Award for the same documentary at the Canada International Film Festival in Vancouver, BC. Alex has completed films for NASA CIPAIR Project at Canada College, Phi Theta Kappa and The Blind Judo Foundation to name a few. Alex was also honored to win the Shelly Fay Memorial Videography Scholarship from the National Academy of Television Arts and Science, San Francisco/Northern California for his film work which aired on KCSM. Alex was adopted in 1994 from a Romanian orphanage when he was almost six years old.

Izidor Ruckel, who resides in Colorado, authored his biography "Abandoned For Life” in 2003. It is his incredible story of growing up as a Romanian orphan who was hidden from the world. In his own words he describes his life in the orphanage. Izidor is not only a gifted public speaker he is an advocate for adoption. After the Romanian Revolution in 1989, the show 20/20 went into Romania and did a number of shows on the orphan situation. In one of their broadcasts, titled “Take Me To America”, Izidor is one of the children that was seen by the world. From that show, Izidor would be adopted by a couple in California in 1991. Izidor holds down two jobs and still finds time to speak about his book and his life in many venues, from Adoption symposiums to College campuses to
Romanian fundraisers. Izidor was adopted from a Romanian orphanage when he was ten years old.

Alex and Izidor were connected by their passion for helping Romanian orphans. Alex read Izidor's book, and Izidor watched Alex's documentary. The two decided that they should join forces to get their story out in hopes of both advocating for adoption, both domestic and international, as well as trying to help those children left behind in Romania. They spoke over the phone for months, and finally met this October.

Alex and Izidor are grateful for being adopted and being given their chance, now they are hoping to make a difference in the world with their documentary.

Alex and Izidor have created a Facebook and Twitter page for the public to follow them on their filming journey. For more information on both Alex and Izidor, or to purchase either Alex’s documentary or Izidors book, please visit their websites, www.akingproduction.com and www.abandonedforlife.com or www.ruckelinternational.com.

STUCK Documentary Coming to Chicago

 

The award-winning documentary film, STUCK, is the story of the struggles and rewards of international adoption. It is travelling to 60 cities over 3 months, beginning March 1. It will be in Chicago on April 26 at the Music Box Theater.

STUCK follows the stories of four orphans from Haiti, Vietnam and Ethiopia and their heartbreaking struggles to come home to their families. To view the trailer, purchase theater tickets, or download the film for personal viewing, please visit www.stuckdocumentary.com.

Prominent Americans including Gerda Weissmann Klein (Jewish Holocaust survivor, author and human rights activist) and Jedd Medefind (Christian Alliance for Orphans) have endorsed the film. Their inspirational words can be viewed at http://vimeo.com/61031241(Gerda) and http://vimeo.com/59461549. (Jedd).

More than a movie, this is a movement – a movement to ensure that every child has the possibility to grow up in a loving family. Viewers are asked to move beyond politics and borders, and address the lives of children who are stuck in a broken system.

The STUCK film is designed to raise awareness – and outrage – over the deplorable system of international adoption. Bureaucracy, inefficiencies and politics keep children incarcerated in orphanages around the world when loving families are willing and eager to adopt them.

The award-winning documentary film was created by Both Ends Burning, a non-profit dedicated to international adoption reform. Founder and President (and STUCK Executive Producer) Craig Juntunen is passionate that it is every child’s fundamental right to have the opportunity to grow up in a loving family. As producer of the movie, his vision is for STUCK to be a change-agent in reforming the current broken process of international adoption.

During the day, the STUCK team will visit local media, houses of worship, community organizations and universities to create a sense of community involvement and pride in adoption. If your group is interested in organizing or hosting an event, please contact Rochelle Rickoff, Volunteer Manager at Rochelle.rrr@gmail.com.

The STUCK Tour bus will end in Washington, D.C. when the petition signatures collected during the trip will be delivered to legislators on Capitol Hill during the Step Forward for Orphans March on May 17th.

What are some easy things you can do to help?

· Come see the movie! Advance-purchase film tickets are available and highly encouraged. To see when STUCK will be near you and to buy tickets for the film, please visitwww.stuckdocumentary.com/.

· Volunteer to be part of the STUCK team when the film comes to your city athttps://bothendsburning.org/initiatives/stuck-tour/volunteer/.

· Sign the petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/make-a-child-s-right-to-a-family-our-priority or text “orphans” to 67463 to sign the petition right from your phone! The goal is to have 1 million signatures by May 17th.

· Join us for the National March for Orphans in Washington, DC on May 17^th. Register athttps://bothendsburning.org/initiatives/the-step-forward-for-orphans-march/.

· Spread the word. This movement is highly dependent on social networking:

o Like our Facebook page here, share it on your page, change your Facebook cover photo to our “Official STUCK cover photo” and share your city’s event tab with your friends.

o Follow STUCK on Twitter/Instagram(@Stuck2013) and use hashtags #StuckTour, #JoinTheMovement, #STUCK, #SaveAChild, #CelebrateFamily.

o E-blast this information to your family, friends, colleagues, houses of worship, community organizations and interfaith networks. The sky is the limit!

· If you cannot attend a film screening, download and view the film for individual use atwww.stuckdocumentary.com.

For more information, call the Both Ends Burning office at 877-908-5161 or visit the STUCKWeb site at www.stuckdocumentary.com.

A Place Called Home Documentary

A Place Called Home: An Adoption story is the heartwarming documentary of one family's struggle to adopt nine children in the face of overwhelming odds. Five years in the making and told from the perspective of their eldest son, A Place Called Home is a documentary filled with the joy and pain that can often accompany the adoption process.

After reading a Mother's Day newspaper article, Baby Boomers Tom and Jean Gaunt (of Indianapolis, Indiana) decided to wave goodbye to their four year-old empty nest and attempt the second largest sibling group adoption in United States history.

As the story unfolds, we learn of the abuse the children suffered at the hands of their stepfather and watch as they prepare for a possible new life with the Gaunt family. Additionally, during the trial period, Tom and Jean discover that the road to adoption is even more difficult than they had originally imagined. The decision was not without controversy within the Gaunt family and viewers will learn of a past that could ultimately threaten the adoption or vindicate Tom and Jean.

Sensitive and affectionate in its portrayal, the film chronicles the evolution of the adoption from moments of doubt to moments of hope and triumph. A Place Called Home gives viewers a rare glimpse into the emotional bonding of two families as they confront their pasts and work for a better future… together.

A Place Called Home originally aired on Mother's Day, but is scheduled to replay on July 6th at 6:00 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.documentarychannel.com/movie.php?currID=9523&t=Place-Called-Home:-An-Adoption-Story,-A

PBS Adoption Series

PBS POV is launching a national public awareness campaign to examine issues facing adoptees and families who choose to adopt. The following documentaries will air starting tonight and into September. Check your local listings for times. You can also view the documentaries on line at http://www.pbs.org/pov/woainimommy/, http://www.pbs.org/pov/offandrunning/ , and
http://www.pbs.org/pov/chajunghee/.

August 31, 2010 "Wo Ai Ni Mommy"

What is it like to be torn from your Chinese foster family, put on a plane with strangers and wake up in a new country, family and culture? Stephanie Wang-Breal’s Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy is the story of Fang Sui Yong, an 8-year-old orphan, and the Sadowskys, the Long Island Jewish family that travels to China to adopt her. Sui Yong is one of 70,000 Chinese children now being raised in the United States. Through her eyes, we witness her struggle with a new identity as she transforms from a timid child into someone that no one — neither her new family nor she — could have imagined. A co-production of American Documentary/POV and the Diverse Voices Project, presented in association with the Center for Asian American Media, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (90 minutes)

September 7, 2010 "Off and Running"
Off and Running tells the story of Brooklyn teenager Avery, a track star with a bright future. She is the adopted African-American child of white Jewish lesbians. Her older brother is black and Puerto Rican and her younger brother is Korean. Though it may not look typical, Avery’s household is like most American homes — until Avery writes to her birth mother and the response throws her into crisis. She struggles over her “true” identity, the circumstances of her adoption and her estrangement from black culture. Just when it seems as if her life is unraveling, Avery decides to pick up the pieces and make sense of her identity, with inspiring results. A co-production of ITVS in association with the National Black Programming Consortium and American Documentary/POV and the Diverse Voices Project, with major funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

September 14th, 2010 "In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee"
Her passport said she was Cha Jung Hee. She knew she was not. So began a 40-year deception for a Korean adoptee who came to the United States in 1966. Told to keep her true identity secret from her new American family, the 8-year-old girl quickly forgot she had ever been anyone else. But why had her identity been switched? And who was the real Cha Jung Hee? In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee is the search to find the answers, as acclaimed filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem (First Person Plural, POV 2000) returns to her native Korea to find her “double,” the mysterious girl whose place she took in America. A co-production of ITVS in association with the Center for Asian American Media and American Documentary/POV.