The Chestermere produced documentary “I’ll See You Later” has been awarded the Impact Docs Awards Award of Merit.
“I’ll See You Later” the documentary on adoption is the vision of one man, Rick Higdon of Chestermere. It is because of his heart, vision, and commitment that this documentary has been completed. He’s a remarkable man,” Bruce McAllister said.
Adding, “Rick had it in his heart that adoption placements were down in Alberta, the adoption narrative wasn’t a positive narrative, and he wanted to share the beauty, the joy, and the love that is adoption and do the issue some good.”
“I’ll See You Later” has been in the works for a couple of years, as the team first began looking at red tape issues with the government, and issues that were contributing to placements decreasing.
“We decided we would tackle a documentary to change the narrative and set a positive path forward. We found some people who were willing and had the courage to share their stories of adoption, and we pieced together an hour-long documentary and it’s a beautiful work,” McAllister said.
The documentary follows three Alberta families, one from Chestermere with an adult daughter who was adopted, one family from Leduc, and one from Edmonton who chose open adoption.
“In the film, we talked about all thing’s adoption, but we highlighted the issue of open adoption. If a birth mom today chooses adoption for her baby, she can be a part of that child’s life. In essence, the adopting family also in a way takes in the birth mom, loves her, and supports her,” McAllister said.
Adding, “If a birth mom isn’t quite at the stage where she feels she can raise a child on her own, she can make the brave choice of choosing adoption, and we followed these two families whose birth moms were very much a part of the child’s life.”
The team behind the documentary talked with adoptees, adopted families, social service agencies, and birth mothers to gather all the information surrounding adoption that they could.
“This has been a labour of love, the first thing we did was we set out to understand all things adoption and really know the issue. We sat down with everyone, because we wanted to have an appreciation of everything that someone feels with the subject of adoption,” McAllister said.
“We really wanted to understand the joy, the pain, the laughter, the tears, the heartache, and the happiness that comes from the choice of adoption, we dove into it headfirst, and we talked to anyone that has anything to do with adoption,” he said.
Adding, “I sat down and interviewed families and asked them tough questions, asked them direct questions. I didn’t do one interview where there weren’t tears and that includes from me, as I sat down with these families and heard their stories, they shared an important part of their lives.”
McAllister is hopeful that “I’ll See You Later” will tell a positive narrative of adoption while informing and educating watchers about the process of adoption.
“In today’s society we spend a lot of time focusing on the negative, and on the issues that sell newspapers, and they aren’t from the most positive viewpoints. We took a difficult, challenging issue and said let’s be honest and authentic about this, let’s share all of the beauty, the laughter, the tears, and everything that goes with it, and let’s throw it out there for the world. We wanted to take a complex issue, and be honest about it,” McAllister said.
The team was over the moon when they found out “I’ll See You Later” received the Award of Merit.
“We know we have something special, we believe we can make a difference, we believe in the power of this documentary, and hopefully, we can make stand-up changes and tell a positive story that needs to be told,” McAllister said.
“This has been such a rewarding and meaningful project it’s opened my eyes to the power of storytelling. As a former journalist, I believe in the power of storytelling and sharing complex and difficult to discuss issues with people,” he said.
McAllister is open to what the future holds, however, he is focusing on getting “I’ll See You Later” in front of as many people as possible, and sharing it with the world, while telling a positive story.
“We’re thankful to be celebrating the success we’re finding along the way. A lot of people have come together courageously to share their stories so we could produce this film, we are doing our best to honour those people and to stand back and see where this goes,” he said.
Without the support of the featured families, and the Executive Director Adoption Options, Sheryl Proulx, “I’ll See You Later wouldn’t have been possible.
“Sheryl has been paramount to the creation of the documentary, she’s been a supportive voice, and somebody we went to for context and clarity on these issues,” McAllister said.
The trailer for “I’ll See You Later” is available on Facebook at, https://www.facebook.com/illseeyoulaterfilm.
