Outside Looking In: Transracial Adoption in America

Outside Looking In features three American families brought together—and at times pushed apart—by transracial adoption. Filmmaker and transracial adoptee Phil Bertelsen examines the bonds and strains that family members experience when white couples decide to adopt and parent black children. Through the stories of three generations of adoptees, the film explores the many complex issues that arise when child and parent do not share the same racial background. These voices—sometimes confident, sometimes questioning, and at times frustrated—narrate America’s struggle to understand and address its own racial history.