answer at all. After three anxious months, a reply comes from Avery’s birth
mother, Kay, in Austin, Texas. It’s a kind enough letter that asks for Avery’s
forgiveness for giving her up and informs her that she has three brothers, a sister
and a nephew. There is no indication, however, that Kay wants a relationship
with Avery.
The effect on Avery is intense. The lack of connection she has always felt around
other African-American culture becomes an issue of paramount importance.
The question "Who am I and where did I come from?" obsesses her. Avery has
numerous conversations with Tova and Travis about her doubts and questions.
But no amount of love and understanding seems to help Avery or ease her
turmoil. In fact, tensions in the household, and Avery’s anger, only increase. For
Avery, "growing into my own person" means creating a complementary black
identity. She begins to remodel herself with a new hairstyle, interests and circle
of friends, but she sees no role for Tova and Travis in this effort.
The family member she remains closest to is her older brother, Rafi. As a mixed-
race adoptee, he can understand and sympathize with Avery’s dilemmas and
questions. Yet Rafi provides a dramatic counterpoint to Avery’s turmoil — and
disproves the idea that cross-racial adoptees inevitably face identity crises.
Rafi doesn’t share Avery’s angst. His birth mother, a crack addict, left his
biological younger brother brain-damaged, and Rafi feels unambiguously lucky
and grateful for the life he has been given by Tova and Travis. In fact, he wants
to become a neurosurgeon so he can put his good fortune to work helping
people like his brain-damaged brother.
Despite these differences, Rafi is Avery’s chief — and sometimes only —
emotional support in the family. And when he leaves for college, Avery feels
more alienated and confused than ever, and Off and Running takes a drastic
turn. To the distress of Tova and Travis, Avery stops coming home. She stays at
friends’ houses, begins skipping school and track practice and even misses her
parents’ wedding in Massachusetts. In a very short time, this highly promising
teenager has entered a downward spiral that seems poised to take away her
mother, Kay, in Austin, Texas. It’s a kind enough letter that asks for Avery’s
forgiveness for giving her up and informs her that she has three brothers, a sister
and a nephew. There is no indication, however, that Kay wants a relationship
with Avery.
The effect on Avery is intense. The lack of connection she has always felt around
other African-American culture becomes an issue of paramount importance.
The question "Who am I and where did I come from?" obsesses her. Avery has
numerous conversations with Tova and Travis about her doubts and questions.
But no amount of love and understanding seems to help Avery or ease her
turmoil. In fact, tensions in the household, and Avery’s anger, only increase. For
Avery, "growing into my own person" means creating a complementary black
identity. She begins to remodel herself with a new hairstyle, interests and circle
of friends, but she sees no role for Tova and Travis in this effort.
The family member she remains closest to is her older brother, Rafi. As a mixed-
race adoptee, he can understand and sympathize with Avery’s dilemmas and
questions. Yet Rafi provides a dramatic counterpoint to Avery’s turmoil — and
disproves the idea that cross-racial adoptees inevitably face identity crises.
Rafi doesn’t share Avery’s angst. His birth mother, a crack addict, left his
biological younger brother brain-damaged, and Rafi feels unambiguously lucky
and grateful for the life he has been given by Tova and Travis. In fact, he wants
to become a neurosurgeon so he can put his good fortune to work helping
people like his brain-damaged brother.
Despite these differences, Rafi is Avery’s chief — and sometimes only —
emotional support in the family. And when he leaves for college, Avery feels
more alienated and confused than ever, and Off and Running takes a drastic
turn. To the distress of Tova and Travis, Avery stops coming home. She stays at
friends’ houses, begins skipping school and track practice and even misses her
parents’ wedding in Massachusetts. In a very short time, this highly promising
teenager has entered a downward spiral that seems poised to take away her
| . |
| . |
www.ambiente.us AUGUST |AGOSTO 2010
Off and Running is an American coming-of-age story. But it is one shaped
by the new realities of an increasingly diverse American population, especially
as those realities affect family life. Brooklyn teen Avery Klein-Cloud is the African-
American adoptive daughter of white Jewish lesbians. Her siblings, also
adopted, are an older black and Puerto Rican boy and a young Korean-
American boy. Avery has grown up loved, supported and happy. Off and
Running opens with the popular high school track star in her junior year, looking
forward to college and a successful life.
But the outside world, with its deep concerns about race and identity, begins to
intrude upon this happy family. Avery’s upbringing in a Jewish household and her
distance from black culture were not issues for her during childhood, but as she
approaches adulthood, she grows more troubled by her ignorance of her own
roots. With the support of her parents, she decides to learn about her past by
writing to her birth mother. The result is a crisis whose depth takes Avery, her
parents and the filmmakers by surprise — a crisis that threatens to sweep away
the teen’s promising future.
As a little girl, Avery was the only black child in Hebrew school. In high school,
her black friends, including her boyfriend, also a track star, often tease her about
how little she knows about African- American culture. It’s all in good fun and
Avery, in turn, likes to tell her friends about Jewish culture and her family’s
diversity. But at some point during her junior year, Avery’s distance from black
life begins to eat at her. Her parents, Tova and Travis, support her efforts to
contact her birth mother through the agency that handled her adoption,
though they caution her that she may not get the answer she wants — or any
Off and Running is an American coming-of-age story. But it is one shaped
by the new realities of an increasingly diverse American population, especially
as those realities affect family life. Brooklyn teen Avery Klein-Cloud is the African-
American adoptive daughter of white Jewish lesbians. Her siblings, also
adopted, are an older black and Puerto Rican boy and a young Korean-
American boy. Avery has grown up loved, supported and happy. Off and
Running opens with the popular high school track star in her junior year, looking
forward to college and a successful life.
But the outside world, with its deep concerns about race and identity, begins to
intrude upon this happy family. Avery’s upbringing in a Jewish household and her
distance from black culture were not issues for her during childhood, but as she
approaches adulthood, she grows more troubled by her ignorance of her own
roots. With the support of her parents, she decides to learn about her past by
writing to her birth mother. The result is a crisis whose depth takes Avery, her
parents and the filmmakers by surprise — a crisis that threatens to sweep away
the teen’s promising future.
As a little girl, Avery was the only black child in Hebrew school. In high school,
her black friends, including her boyfriend, also a track star, often tease her about
how little she knows about African- American culture. It’s all in good fun and
Avery, in turn, likes to tell her friends about Jewish culture and her family’s
diversity. But at some point during her junior year, Avery’s distance from black
life begins to eat at her. Her parents, Tova and Travis, support her efforts to
contact her birth mother through the agency that handled her adoption,
though they caution her that she may not get the answer she wants — or any
| . |
LGBT/Latino/Hispanic Civil Rights unitycoalition.org |
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future.
Only Avery’s boyfriend, Prince, is confident
that she will regain her balance and the
disciplined sports focus they previously shared.
As dramatically chronicled in Off and Running,
a changed and wiser Avery does ultimately
rally to graduate, win a bronze medal at the
state track championships and earn a
scholarship to college in Delaware. She also realizes, in a roundabout way that
no one could have predicted, that Tova and Travis — for all that they could not
tell her about her African-American roots — nonetheless have given her the
strength, determination and independence to meet her identity crisis and
become, indeed, her own person.
"I wasn’t prepared for the complete meltdown that Avery had halfway through
our filming together," says director Opper. "But we made a pact. We had started
this project together and we would finish it together. I began inviting her over
to watch and respond to the scenes as we were cutting them. This was her story,
and it was important that she feel ownership of the process."
Off and Running is a co-production of the Independent Television Service (ITVS)
association with American Documentary | POV and the Diverse Voices Project,
with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It is a
selected project of Tribeca All Access, with support from the Foundation for
Jewish Culture and the National Black Programming Consortium.
Off and Running by Nicole Opper
Broadcast: Tuesday, September 7 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes) www.pbs.org
Online: September 8, 2010 to December 7, 2010
Copyright © AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source.
Only Avery’s boyfriend, Prince, is confident
that she will regain her balance and the
disciplined sports focus they previously shared.
As dramatically chronicled in Off and Running,
a changed and wiser Avery does ultimately
rally to graduate, win a bronze medal at the
state track championships and earn a
scholarship to college in Delaware. She also realizes, in a roundabout way that
no one could have predicted, that Tova and Travis — for all that they could not
tell her about her African-American roots — nonetheless have given her the
strength, determination and independence to meet her identity crisis and
become, indeed, her own person.
"I wasn’t prepared for the complete meltdown that Avery had halfway through
our filming together," says director Opper. "But we made a pact. We had started
this project together and we would finish it together. I began inviting her over
to watch and respond to the scenes as we were cutting them. This was her story,
and it was important that she feel ownership of the process."
Off and Running is a co-production of the Independent Television Service (ITVS)
association with American Documentary | POV and the Diverse Voices Project,
with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It is a
selected project of Tribeca All Access, with support from the Foundation for
Jewish Culture and the National Black Programming Consortium.
Off and Running by Nicole Opper
Broadcast: Tuesday, September 7 at 10:00 PM (90 minutes) www.pbs.org
Online: September 8, 2010 to December 7, 2010
Copyright © AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source.
| . |
See more POV.