A film documenting a Montreal-based filmmaker’s journey to find his birth family in Newfoundland is being screened next week at the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax.
Adrian Wills started his film and his journey of discovery back in 2020 by paying a visit to the VOCM studios just as travel restrictions were about to be imposed due to COVID-19.
Born at St. Clare’s in 1973, his Newfoundland birth records listed his birth name, “Baby Boy Cousins” and included a vague description of his birth mother as “a quiet girl.”
Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada
His appearance on VOCM’s On Target along with Anne Roane-Sheldon, administrator of the Facebook page NL Adoptees, generated huge public interest and resulted in an aunt reaching out to him with information.
That, he says, sent him on an emotional and very personal journey of discovery, all of which is documented, in real time, in the film.
“Everything that I learnt in this whole story, I learnt on camera, so there’s no part of this story that I wasn’t discovering as you discover it as a kind of audience member.”
Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada
Wills won’t give the story away, not because he’s trying to be coy or push people to see the film, but because the film tells the story best, as it’s slowly uncovered. He tells VOCM News he learned a lot about his own resilience through the process, and how much his own life journey has mirrored that of his birth mother.
“I really want people who watch this film to… understand how complex and how layered the whole adoption process is.”
Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada
In the meantime, Wills has developed some close relationships in Newfoundland, and his next film will have a Newfoundland theme.
A Quiet Girl will be screened at the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax September 19. The full interview with Adrian Wills can be heard on Profiles this weekend.
