By Christina Kiely
Found is the story of Chloe, Lilly and Sadie, who were all born in China and adopted by white American families. At the age of 16, through the DNA service 23andMe, the girls learn that they are cousins. The documentary beautifully explores the complex emotions of every person involved in each of the adoptions. Found is a compassionately told story of the girls finding one another, finding their homeland, and finding themselves.
Director Amanda Lipitz and Producer Anita Gou spoke with me about the experience of making the film and the powerful and often unexpected stories that emerged in the process.

Still from Found (Netflix, 2021)
Christina Kiely: Tell me how the film came about, and about the moment you knew you had a documentary.
Amanda Lipitz: So with all of my films I start with one image that really inspires me – Chloe is my niece and my brother told me that she was having her Bat Mitzvah at The Wall in Jerusalem. And the image of my niece, surrounded by our big Jewish family… I knew I wanted to film that. Around the same time they’d discovered Chloe had a cousin. So I started to capture their stories.
The fact that you had one girl raised Jewish, one raised Catholic, and one raised Baptist… it seemed meant to be.
Amanda Lipitz: So many things about the film were meant to be. Even in the discovery of Liu Hao the genealogist, for example, she is such an amazing woman and she became our fourth girl, in such an amazing moment for the film.

Still from Found (Netflix, 2021)
At what point did she become that for you? Was it a surprise or were you looking for someone to fill that role?
Amanda Lipitz: Anita and I would talk about – that it would be amazing if the girls could talk to someone in China, that was a young woman who grew up during the one child policy in China and give us that perspective. It would be so great if that could happen organically. So when Liu Hao was introduced to us, all we knew was that she was from the same hometown as the girls. We did not know her story. That moment on the bridge was the first time we heard her whole story.
You did an incredibly sensitive job at looking at this story from all these different points of view. Being so understanding of everybody – from the people who gave up their children, the girls, to the adoptive parents – is that just who you are or did you have to think that through?
Amanda Lipitz: I would say that’s the type of storyteller I am, it wasn’t something I had to think through. I just wanted to tell the story of these girls. And see them come of age and see those dormant questions grow louder. As long as I stayed true to that everything else fell into place.
Anita Gou (Producer): When I first met Amanda she’d been following Chloe, Lily, and Sadie for a couple of years. I start talking to her about the story she was trying to tell through these girls, I felt this drive to explore – no matter statistics or the history, she goes for what is the human experience behind all of that. In this case, I was drawn to her desire to unpack a lot these inherent stereotypes that we’re attached to: Asian Women’s experiences, Asian American experiences or being a teenager. And there’s much more to these identities and the back-stories that we often don’t get to see. I think the girls in their journeys organically lead us to these places in the same way, with Liu Hao and the families in China did as well.
The other people I found so moving where the nannies. Can you tell me about how you included them and what you were expecting?
Amanda Lipitz: I’ve always been interested in the nannies. You see in that video, when Li Lan hands Chloe to my sister in-law for the first time. I looked at this woman and she had this smile on her face but there was sadness in her eyes. There were tears there. Chloe was 15 months old. She had cared for this child for 15 months. I wondered who that woman was. In the film she says, “You know we nannies are not coldhearted.” It’s just a beautiful moment. We found the most incredible group of nannies and women and they really are, as Liu Hao says, the frontline workers.
They were incredible and NOT coldhearted – such as the one who went to medical school to make sure the children had proper medical care and the other one who took the children home because there wasn’t enough space at the orphanage – it was incredible. And you felt that they genuinely remembered the girls?
Amanda Lipitz: You know some people feel like, how could they remember? We didn’t really think about that because the nannies wanted to remember and the girls needed to be remembered. They had all had the silent trauma and we as outsiders needed to bear witness to it – the silent trauma that they can’t always verbalize.
Read Part 2 of Christina’s conversation with the Found team here.
NYWIFT presented and Industry Screening of Found, followed by a Q& with Anita Gou and Amanda Lipitz on November 9, 2021. Watch the full recording of the conversation below:
Related Posts
Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Guneet K. Singh
Welcome to NYWIFT, Guneet K. Singh! Former NYWIFT intern Guneet K. Singh is a producer and writer with a passion for diverse storytelling. She was most recently the producer for the poignant play, Irreparable, which premiered at the Act One One-Act Theater Festival. She has worked in television development for NBC and Peacock, working on programs such as That’s My Jam, Password, Joyelle Nicole Johnson: Love Joy and 5 More Sleeps ‘Til Christmas. Her first producing role was as the Digital Producer for the Emmy nominated The Kids Tonight Show. She began her career as an NBC Page, working on shows like Saturday Night Live and The TODAY Show. In our interview, Guneet discusses her exciting time in NBC’s legendary Page Program, the power of networking, and finding her calling as a writer and producer.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Monique Gabriela Curnen
Welcome to NYWIFT, Monique Gabriela Curnen! Monique Gabriela Curnen is an actor and producer known for a string of critical and commercial successes, including Half Nelson, The Dark Knight, Contagion and Birth/Rebirth. While working with Warrington Hudlin at the Black Filmmaker Foundation, she started producing short films. She continued producing independently, including the Joe Holt short Noël, which sold to ShortsHD. She served as executive producer on the award-winning feature documentary, A Run For More (PBS, Amazon) directed by Ray Whitehouse. She’s currently in development on the narrative feature Sheila & the Punk Rock, written and directed by K. Lorrel Manning. Monique discusses the roots of her career, her experience working on large-scale productions, and how she overcomes challenges within these realms. Get to know her in our latest interview!
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Sonia Malfa
Let's give a warm welcome to new NYWIFT member Sonia Malfa! Inspired by nature and myth, Sonia Malfa is a writer/director who creates visually poetic films that draw from her Puerto Rican-American roots. From music video and commercials to documentary and narrative film, her directing work has been featured in Tribeca Festival, AdAge, Vogue Italia, and won both Webby and Clio Awards. Sonia is currently in development on her narrative feature debut, It's Always Sunni, which was selected for the Gotham Project Market and Film Independent’s Fast Track. Most recently, Sonia was selected for the NALIP/Netflix Woman of Color Film Incubator and the Actors Studio Directors Unit. In our interview, Sonia discusses her deep connection to nature, commercial projects, the importance of creative community, and her road trip film - with a twist!
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Melissa Roxburgh
Welcome to NYWIFT, Melissa Roxburgh! Melissa Roxburgh is a Sagittarian (12/10/92), actress and Canadian. Her parents moved to Canada from the United States and founded a church in Vancouver. Roxburgh is the second oldest of four children; she has two sisters and one younger brother. While pursuing acting roles in Vancouver, Roxburgh studied communications at Simon Fraser University. She is an alumna of the William Esper Studio. Roxburgh landed her first major role in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules and has worked steadily in television and film. She is currently portraying Rebecca "Bex" Henderson, an FBI Special Agent, in The Hunting Party, a procedural crime drama on NBC. Melissa spoke to us about her creative journey, family roots, favorite actors, and her directing dreams.
READ MORE
1 Comment