Genre
Synopsis
Our verité film follows two women in Birmingham, AL in the final months of their pregnancies as they consider whether they’re able to raise their child and make an adoption plan. The story builds to each woman’s delivery and the critical 48 hours before being discharged when each will decide: whether to bring her baby home or kiss them goodbye.
Rachael is recently divorced and working hard to keep her family afloat. She is considering adoption as a means of survival. Rachael is also an adoptee and always felt that her birth mom didn’t love her. She worries that if she chooses adoption, her child would struggle with the same sense of abandonment. But if she keeps her baby, will the rest of her family suffer as a result?
Within one month of her high school graduation, Nikole’s dad passed away from cancer and she found out she was pregnant. At nineteen, Nikole had just lost a parent, and she questions if she is ready to become one herself. At Nikole’s final meeting with her adoption social worker, they discuss her hospital plan. “After baby is born, would you like to leave the hospital first? Or would you like baby to leave first?” Afterwards, an overwhelmed Nikole shares with her mom, “I don’t think I’m ready to be a mom, but I don’t know if I can let her go.”
But uncertainty doesn’t stop the progress of a pregnancy. After delivery and with a body still recovering from labor, each woman makes the permanent decision to either raise her child or place them for adoption.
Postpartum, Nikole rebuilds her life carrying a new kind of grief. And with a changed understanding of her own birth mom’s experience, Rachael decides to search for her after thirty years apart.
Bio
Din is an award-winning filmmaker based in Birmingham, AL and was recently selected by the Producers Guild of America to be one of this year’s PGA Create Fellows. Her first documentary, REFUGE, was Executive Produced by Katie Couric and has won both the Audience Award and Jury Award for Best Documentary at multiple film festivals. REFUGE was included in USA Today’s List of Movies to Watch in 2023 and is now available on all digital platforms and all Delta flights worldwide. The film is distributed by Shout! Studios. She is currently in post-production on LOVE, YOUR BIRTH MOM, which follows several pregnant women who are considering adoption. Each will ultimately decide whether to raise their children or place them into the arms of another family. Prior to filmmaking, Din worked as an architectural designer for over a decade. She has a Masters in Architecture with High Distinction from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Virginia. Din serves on the board of SUBJECT MATTER, which provides funds to documentary films highlighting urgent social issues and to nonprofits tackling the featured topics.
Awards History
PGA Create Fellowship 2023
Credits
Director & Producer - Din Blankenship
Producer - Elizabeth Lodge Stepp
Editor - Leigh Johnson
Executive Producer - Frank Marshall & the Kennedy/Marshall Company
Executive Producer - Brenda Robinson
