Screening: Wednesday, Sep 10, 6:30pm at Bayliss Library (Block 1) |
Free admission |
Director: Kate Stapleton
Documentary Feature, United States, 2024, 52 min, Color
The Inner Sea is a documentary about adoption, music, a bright blue, 40-foot-long school bus, and the journey of a lifetime.
The filmmaker is a Michigan native. The film celebrates the beauty and healing power of the Great Lakes.
Director/Producer: Kate Stapleton
Kate Stapleton is a harpist, dancer, theatre producer, and author. She performs across America in a band with her partner and their six children, traveling in a 40-foot-long, bright blue school bus. She is also a birth mother. She shares the story of how her choice led to her current life as an artist and mother in her directorial debut as a filmmaker, The Inner Sea.
When I was 21, I got pregnant. I made the choice to place my firstborn child for adoption. This choice changed my life. I became a mother who was not a mother. I became an actress, a musician, an author. I married and had six children. I started a band with my partner, and we began traveling across America, performing shows on the harp and guitar.
The daughter I placed for adoption grew up on the other side of the country, and became a musician as well. We began to talk about performing together.
In many ways, this documentary is a modern-day, deconstructed, real-life Sound of Music. The reason that I wanted to make it was a resounding silence, which is what I have heard from birth mothers in the years since I chose adoption. I had never seen a documentary from the perspective of a birth mother, so I decided to make one. Their stories are rarely told. This is mine.
Julien Dubuque International Film Festival, Dubuque, Iowa, April 25, 2025, Official Selection
Door County Film Festival, Fish Creek, Wisconsin, February 15, 2025, Official Selection
Red Cedar Film Festival, Menomonie, Wisconsin, July 19, 2025, Official Selection
Houston International Film Festival, Houston, Texas, April 22, 2025, Finalist
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