Year of the Rabbit
Pitch Teaser
2023
Year of the Rabbit 2023, a Chinese American Adoptee returns to her place of birth for the first time, compares it to archived footage of her 2001 adoption, and explores her unknown past.
Abigail Kemp | About Me
April 16, 2021
A microdoc about filmmaker, Abigail Kemp, and her identity as a Chinese American Adoptee with a story about her middle name
BIO
I believe everyone has a story to tell. My story began halfway across the world in Hefei, China.
My name is Abigail Kemp. I am an emerging AAPI adoptee filmmaker specializing in writing and producing. With a Bachelor of Science in Media and Entertainment, I have studied the fundamentals of developing and producing visual media stories. In my junior year, I wrote a WeScreenplay Semifinalist horror script, Pas De Deux, and continue to write stories featuring strong female leads. In 2022, I produced the short The Great Panic of 1999, which was featured in the Peaberry Film Festival and Cobb International Film Festival.
Year of the Rabbit expands my creative experience to documentary filmmaking. Although I created a short video about my Chinese name in 2021, this would be a larger, international exploration of my identity as a Chinese American Adoptee. Returning in 2023, I come full circle with my birth year, the Year of the Rabbit, which only occurs every 12 years. While there are several amazing documentaries about Chinese Adoptees and the One Child Policy, none have been created from the adoptee’s perspective by an adoptee. This will document the exploration of my past on my terms with my voice guiding the narrative. I want to show a narrative where the adoptee does not have to find their birth parents to feel complete. The reality is that many Chinese adoptees will not reconnect with their birth parents. I hope this film and alternate perspective will resonate with other adoptees in addition to educating others about the experience adoptees go through.
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