A National Film Board of Canada feature documentary by Montreal director Adrian Wills follows him as he searches for his biological mother in her home province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Each step closer to his mother takes him deeper into the history of adoption in the province, where many unwed pregnant women in deeply Christian towns surrendered their babies to be brought up by someone else.
In “A Quiet Girl,” available to watch on YouTube, Mr. Wills learns his biological mother became pregnant with him when she was 18, in 1972. Her family at the time was poor and devout. She gave birth to him in a hospital in St. John’s.
Mr. Wills discovers, on camera and in real time, the startling truths of his complex beginnings in Newfoundland. Shocking details drive him to the core of his birth mother’s resilience, and ultimately his own. In this documentary that combines 16mm footage and contemporary images with deeply personal conversations, Mr. Wills’ voyage transforms from an urgent search for identity into a quest to give a quiet girl her voice.
Jean Ann Farrell, the coordinator of Newfoundland Adoption Services in the 1970s, told Mr. Willis that at any given time, there were “hundreds of babies” available to adopt in the province. The provincial government even advertised the babies in newspapers.
In a December 2023 article, the Canadian Press reported, “Similar stories were playing out across Canada, in staggering numbers, according to Valerie Andrews, the executive director of Origins Canada, an Ontario-based non-profit supporting families separated by adoption. She’s also a PhD student in women’s studies at York University and author of the book, ‘White Unwed Mother: The Adoption Mandate in Postwar Canada.’
“She has pored over adoption data from across the country documenting the period from the 1940s to the 1970s, and she estimates at least 300,000 babies were surrendered for adoption in that time, often under intense societal and religious pressure.”
Anne Sheldon, who runs a Facebook group called Newfoundland and Labrador Adoptees, told the Canadian Press that more of these stories need to be told. Each month there are many new posts from adopted people born in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, looking for their biological family members in Newfoundland. The group has more than 14,000 members.
