Coming Full Circle: The Journey of A Transgendered Korean Adoptee

Overview

What is it like to go "back" to a country you never knew? Pauline Park was born into a poor family in post-war Korea. Adopted by white American parents, she left Korea as a 7-month old baby boy and grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 54 years later, she embarked on a journey of discovering and connecting to her past, where her birth name literally means "the second son". This film follows Pauline Park as she visited her native Korea in the summer of 2015. Park, a transgender rights activist in New York City, also took the opportunity to share her decades of experience in activism with local LGBT communities - first by giving the keynote speech in the Seoul pride festival and then meeting with various local LGBT groups. Although her search for birth family was unsuccessful, Park felt the trip has brought her closer to her birth heritage. She is learning Korean now and hopes to return in the future.​