Searching for Go-Hyang

A film by Tammy Chu Tolle

1998 | 32 minutes | Color | DVD | Order No. 99608

SYNOPSIS

A moving personal documentary, SEARCHING FOR GO-HYANG traces the return of twin sisters to their native Korea after a fourteen year absence. Sent away by their parents for the promise of a better life in the US, they instead suffered mental and physical abuse by their adoptive parents, including the erasure of their cultural heritage and language. Reunited with their biological parents and brothers, the young women explore their past in an attempt to reconnect with their “Go-Hyang”, their homeland, which they find they may not have a place in anymore. Thousands of Korean and Chinese girl babies have been brought to the US for adoption in the last twenty years. This beautiful film is a rare feminist look at the issues of cross-cultural adoption and national identity.

PRESS

“Searching for Go-Hyang’s exquisite design and rich, densely layered imagery penetrate deeply into that sacred territory of family and our fantasies of it.”

Patricia R. Zimmerman Ithaca College

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

  • Feminale Women’s Film Festival, Köln, Germany
  • PBS National Broadcast - Asian American Heritage Month
  • New England Film and Video Festival - Best Student Video
  • San Francisco, Toronto, Chicago & New York International Asian American Film Festivals
  • Nextframe International Film and Video Festival
  • The Oakland Museum

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Tammy Chu Tolle

Tammy Chu Tolle is a producer and director for film and television. She directed and produced the award-winning documentaries, Searching for Go-hyang (PBS, 2000) and Resilience (Busan International Film Festival, 2009). She was also an Associate Producer for the award-winning documentary Behind Forgotten Eyes, narrated by Yunjin Kim (2010) and Producer for Play Money (2017). For Discovery Channel Networks-Asia Pacific, she produced and directed Smart City Seoul (2012), and served as the Supervising Producer for First Time Filmmakers: Korea (2013) and First Time Filmmakers: Japan (2015). She also produced Sarah (feat. Hunz, 2017), a music video for Futurecop and New Retro Wave. An Associate Producer for Herzog and Company, Tammy worked with them on The National Comedy Center project (2018), and is currently on an eleven-part documentary series for ESPN Films, College Football 150: The American Game (2019). (7/19)

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