‘Found’ follows three girls searching for their origins

Above : The documentary “Found” is streaming on Netflix. (Photo/Netflix)

Movie review : “Found,” directed by Amanda Lipitz, featuring Lily Bolka, Chloe Lipitz, Sadie Mangelsdorf, Lio Has. Streaming on Netflix.

A dictionary definition of the word “found” is obvious: It’s the simple past tense and past participle of the verb find. But in another context, found is defined as “to set up or establish on a firm basis or for enduring existence.”

In her Netflix documentary, titled simply “Found,” director Amanda Lipitz explores the lives of three Chinese-born teenage girls. And in doing so, Lipitz embraces both meanings of the word.

Having been adopted as infants by American families, and raised in different parts of the United States, each girl is understandably curious about her Chinese roots. And each gets the opportunity to get many, if not all, of her questions answered thanks to the DNA testing company 23 and Me , an intrepid Chinese genealogy researcher and the loving support of the parents who adopted them.

The girls whom Lipitz follows – their American names are Lily, Chloe and Sadie – are each the product (some might say the victim) of China’s former one-child policy . Enacted in 1980, and not repealed until 2015, the policy was the country’s controversial attempt at population control. Parents who defied the government faced fines and, in some cases, even forced sterilization.

But aside from the fact that it didn’t apply to everyone – some ethnic minorities, for example, were allowed to opt out – the policy offered all parents a gender-based loophole. Based on a long-held Chinese tradition of favoring males over females, women delivering a girl instead of a boy could try again – making the girls, in many cases, redundant and unwanted.

Which was the case for all three of the girls in the documentary (one of whom, Chloe, is the director’s adopted niece). All were given up for adoption, one abandoned by the side of a bridge, another just dropped off at the entrance of a hospital. Subsequently taken in by orphanages, and cared for by overworked nannies, the girls were eventually adopted and taken to live in America.

Lipitz captures the three of them, a decade and a half or more later, all having connected through 23 and Me and discovering that they were cousins. And though they live in different parts of the country – Arizona, Oklahoma and Tennessee – and have different upbringings (one is being raised in a Jewish tradition), all are basic American girls – peppering their language with “like,” hanging out with their primarily white friends and chatting with each other through their computer screens.

Yet their concerns linger: They know they are different from most everyone in their hometowns, and each – with the support of their families – seeks to find out more about her origins. Maybe, hopefully, even discover her birth parents.

Which is where the genealogy researcher comes in. Liu Hao works for a company that specializes in reconnecting Chinese families, and Lipitz shows her traveling the country, interviewing people and – with genuine concern – talking with them about how and why they were willing to give away their daughters. In one of the film’s more telling moments, Liu shares that her own father didn’t want her – and it was only because of her mother that she, too, wasn’t abandoned.

And that’s the heart of “Found,” the emotions that all go through – the girls, the parents who adopted them, Liu herself and even those she interviews, all of whom were left to deal with the aftermath of a contentious attempt at social engineering.

In the end, the girls do find a kind of reconciliation during a trip they take to China, with Liu acting not just as their guide and translator but also their spiritual counselor. Scenes with the girls touring orphanages and meeting with their former nannies are heart-wrenching, yet mostly in a good way. Mostly.

Which takes us back, ultimately, to the documentary’s very title. Not every question the girls have gets a positive response. But what they’re left with is a new sense of connection: What they’ve found is … each other.

An edited version of this review was previously broadcast on Spokane Public Radio.