REVISITING THE ANDERSONS
Single channel video, 12:14 min. 2015
The video Revisiting the Andersons is part of the Loving Belinda project which also includes the videos Adopting Belinda (2006) and Loving Belinda (2015) as well as the color photograph The Andersons (2015) and the publication Loving Belinda (2015). As a whole, the project is based on the fictive story about Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, a supposedly Asian-American couple in Minnesota who have adopted Belinda, a white girl from Denmark. In the videos the couple is being interviewed about their experience of adopting Belinda. Everything appears ordinary, with the exception that the racial and cultural dynamic is reversed. The project employs the mockumentary genre, appropriating documentary features to destabilize reality with subversive effect. In the Loving Belinda publication, the fictional universe is contextualized by conversations between the individuals involved in the project, whom in reality are all engaged in critical discourse on transnational adoption, anti-racism and whiteness in Scandinavia.
Revisiting the Andersons is a continuation of the videos Adopting Belinda (2006). On the occasion of the 10-year anniversary of the Danish TV Program Kaffen er serveret(Coffee is Served), a Danish TV host revisits the Anderson family whom he met back in 2006 shortly after Mr. and Mrs. Anderson had adopted Belinda from Denmark. Now Belinda is nine years old, and in the meantime there has been a lot of debate about transnational adoption and race in Denmark. The Danish TV host interviews the Andersons about how they are coping as a family and about their perspectives on transnational adoption and racism.
SEE ALSO
Video stills: Revisiting the Andersons
Installation view: Galleri Image, Denmark, 2015.
Video excerpt: Revisiting the Andersons
CREDITS
Concept, editing: Jane Jin Kaisen / Cast: Belinda: Elke Olaf Goll, Danish TV Host: Morten Goll, Mr. Anderson: Tobias Hübinette, Mrs Anderson: Jane Jin Kaisen / Photography & color correction: Guston Sondin-Kung / Supported by: The Danish Arts Foundation