Heartland: Joy Dietrich of Attachment Project

The journalist and filmmaker turns the camera on herself and other foreign adopted children who had trouble bonding with their American parents in this probing documentary.

For Heartland Film Festival schedule and tickets, please click here.

Film Yap: Obviously this is an incredibly personal film. At what point did you decide you might want to make a documentary about your journey? Did anything hold you back?

Joe Dietrich: At the beginning, I had no intention of including my family story. The theme of the documentary was to be on the various types of therapies out there to help adoptive families with bonding challenges. However, the more I filmed Daniel, Tara and their journeys with their adoptive families, the more I thought of my own experience and whether attachment-focused therapy could have helped my family. Obviously as an adult, I could not receive the treatment they underwent, but I did want to understand what happened to me and why my adoptive parents did what they did. So I started filming my own healing journey. At the same time, what was holding me back from completing this documentary at the end was this incredibly personal nature of the film.

FY: Tell us a little about your own career path, which is very eclectic as both a journalist and creator.

JD: I started as an Art major at college, but when I had my family issues at age 18, I thought I would not be able to survive financially as an artist. So I switched to an International Relations major with the goal of entering the U.S. foreign service. I really failed at that! So I grabbed opportunities that came my way and that was as a magazine editor and journalist. My love of art, film, and culture was always there. So when my life stabilized, I returned to pursuing my first career goal — that of an artist.

FY: What did it feel like to return home to Indiana to talk to your adoptive parents? Did it even feel like home?

JD: When I visited my parents' homes, no, their homes did not feel like home. But the town of Madison, Indiana I felt a mix of nostalgia and a kind of pang of youth. To tell you the truth, Madison, Indiana seemed more familiar than say, Seoul, Korea, where I was born. I spent 10 years in Indiana, from age 7 to 17, very formative years.

FY: In your confrontation with your mother that we see, were you expecting it to go the way it did? How do you feel watching it now?

JD: It is still very painful watching that scene. And no, I did not expect what ended up happening. The whole making of the documentary has been eye-opening for me and I've learned a lot.

FY: How did you find Daniel and Tara, the two other people who had similar experiences to you, and what was involved in following them for years?

JD: I was touring the country with my feature fiction film "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" about Asian American young women that aired on PBS in 2008. Tara's Mom came up to me after a screening of that movie in Columbus, Ohio and spoke about attachment therapy. I immediately got interested. Through the attachment therapy community, I was connected to Daniel and his family in Cleveland.

I would fly back and forth from my base in Brooklyn to Ohio for quite a number of years to follow Daniel and Tara, mostly on vacation breaks from my work at The New York Times (I no longer work there). I wanted to see them develop and see if the bonds would change/stay the same/grow tighter. Relationships don't form overnight. It takes years and years of being together and experiencing life together.

FY: Did making this film bring any new insight to why some adopted kids bond to their parents and others struggle to?

JD: Absolutely! There are so many factors that can determine the outcome, but it can be successful under the most difficult of circumstances. The key thing is that a relationship is formed between two parties. Both sides must be committed to the journey of building a sense of family.

FY: What's next for you?

JD: I wish I had a sexy answer for you, but I took off work for two years to edit the film and used up my savings, so I will be in search of a paying job in the next few months. This is the life of an indie DIY filmmaker!