Research Catalog

Finding Christa

Title
Finding Christa [motion picture] / produced by Camille Billops and James Hatch.
Publication
New York : C. Billops, 1991.

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C.1 REEL 1 OF 1Moving imageBy appointment only M16 4409 F C.1 REEL 1 OF 1 C.1 REEL 1 OF 1Offsite

Details

Additional Authors
  • Billops, Camille.
  • Hatch, James V. (James Vernon), 1928-2020.
Description
1 film reel (55 min.) : sd., b&w/col.; 16 mm.
Summary
Questions of maternal responsibility and personal fulfillment are raised in this emotionally-charged film which explores the director's decision to give her four-year-old daughter Christa up for adoption and their reunion twenty-one years later. Co-mingling home movie footage, photographs and contemporary interviews, the first half of the film takes the viewer to Los Angeles where Billops and her family lived and where she made the agonizing choice. Friends and relatives confirm Billops' account concerning the limited options available to single mothers and the family's reluctance to become involved. A "surreal theatrical interlude" featuring Billops, playwright George C. Wolfe and Christa, provides the transition to the documentary's second part focusing on Christa's life with her adoptive mother and siblings and her present career as a singer-composer. Camille and Christa's reunion, far from idealized, is underscored by another theatrical vignette in which mother and daughter share family photographs as if they were playing cards.
Subject
  • Mothers and daughters
  • African American families
  • African Americans
  • Adopted children
  • Single mothers
  • African American women > Biography
  • Women > Biography
  • Families
Credits (note)
  • Producers, directors, writers, Camille Billops, James Hatch; director of photography, Dion Hatch; editor, Paula Heredia.
Title
Finding Christa [motion picture] / produced by Camille Billops and James Hatch.
Imprint
New York : C. Billops, 1991.
Credits
Producers, directors, writers, Camille Billops, James Hatch; director of photography, Dion Hatch; editor, Paula Heredia.
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Added Author
Billops, Camille.
Hatch, James V. (James Vernon), 1928-2020.
Branch Call Number
M16 4409 F
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