Netflix’s ‘Found’: International adoption, uncovering complicated family histories in China

The Netflix documentary “Found” follows three Chinese cousins who were adopted as babies by very different American families. Thanks to DNA, the teen girls have found each other and now have questions about who they are and where they came from.

When the trio headed to China, a young Chinese genealogist with her own complicated history helped them uncover clues.

Director Amanda Lipitz says, “It’s one of those moments where the documentary gods just come in and say, ‘You need to tell this story, and these people are fated to meet, and this is much bigger than the making of a film.’”

Lipitz and producer Anita Gou tell KCRW how their emotional film “Found” benefitted from a big helping of kismet from start to finish. And they explain how they managed to film in China around a sensitive subject matter, before coming back to America just weeks before the world went into pandemic shutdown.