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Films/Videos The Quiet Girl ​ 2022 Adapted from a short story by Claire Keegan, Foster (2010), The Quiet Girl follows nine year old Cait as she spends a summer with a middled aged couple, Eibhlin and Sean Cinnsealach. This is a gentle, tender film about the contrast Cait experiences. She goes from being neglected to being gently cared for and incorporated into the small family. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Being homeless felt inevitable': after years in care, I was living in a tent. Who was to blame? The Guardian 2022 Daniel Lavelle is a UK based freelance writer, who has written for The Guardian on social problems including homelessness and mental illness. In this recent article, Daniel tells his own story of being in care, of doing night school while working full time, and of becoming homeless in 2013 towards the end of his university degree. The article is an extract from his soon to be published book: Down and Out: Suriving the Homelessness Crisis. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/may/12/being-homeless-felt-inevitable-after-years-in-care-i-was-living-in-a-tent-who-was-to-blame External Website

Films/Videos No Reservations ​ 2007 No Reservations (2007) is an American rom-com directed by Scott Hicks and starring Catherine Zeta-Jones. When top Manhattan chef, Kate Armstrong, takes in her 9 year old niece, Zoe, after the death of Kate's sister, her life changes. Zoe needs a home, and Kate realises she needs what Zoe brings to her home. External Website

Films/Videos Zoey to the Max ​ 2015 Zoey, a 13-year-old foster child, watches her foster family's dog get stolen while she's in charge! The criminals, a pair of "Home Alone"-like thugs, are after the mutt because he is a famous show dog. Zoey heads out on a cross-country adventure with a techy new friend in order to track down the dog and save the relationship with her foster family. Throughout the film Zoey must dig in and fight for the life she's always wanted, undergoing much personal growth in the process. External Website

Films/Videos Carefree ​ 2020 Video was made after a script session with young people in a care home in East London. It was a combined decision that it would be better than insread of basing characters on themselves that they were trained up as actors and that we would workshop stories that are not their own life stories but other people they have come across in care. All of the kids in the home were also given crew responsibilities and took part in the final edit. External Website

Films/Videos Sleepers ​ 1996 Sleepers is a 1996 American legal crime drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 novel of the same name. In the summer of 1967, 4 friends living in Hell's Kitchen, New York, accidently injure a man while they are stealing from a hot dog vendor. The boys are sentences to Wilkinson Home for Boys where they are brutalised. 13 years later, 2 of the boys, confront one of the former guards, killing him in front of witnesses. External Website

Films/Videos The Family ​ 2016 Australian Anne Hamilton-Byrne headed an apocalyptic sect called The Family, which was prominent in Melbourne from the 1960s through to the 1990s. Hamilton-Byrne acquired numerous children and raised them as her own.The children were controlled through beatings, drugs and starvation and not rescued until 1987. External Website

Non Fiction Foster Focus Magazine Chris Chmielewski 2015 Chris Chmielewski is the Creator, Owner and Editor of Foster Focus Magazine, America's only monthly foster care magazine. He spent five years in foster care and was expelled from high school just before graduation when he aged out of foster care. He created Foster Focus so that others in care would have the most up to date information. The magazine has consistently grown as Chris is entering his sixth year of the magazine. He has interviewed celebrities such as Maia Mitchell and Jimmy Graham. And writers from all over the country contribute articles to the magazine, making it one of the leading sources of foster care news and information in the country. Chris has developed a unique outlook on what a kid from care can achieve.Chris talks about his early life as a poor kid in the coal region of Pennsylvania and the humorous ways he found to earn money. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles ‘I lived in a state of terror’: Patricia Cornwell on childhood trauma, her new novel and the search for Bigfoot The Guardian - Patricia Cornwell 2023 ‘I lived in a state of terror’: Patricia Cornwell on childhood trauma, her new novel and the search for big foot. Cornwell's father walked out when she was five. Her mother suffered from severe depression and wasn't able to look after her or her siblings properly. The mother became obsessed with Billy Graham and moved to where he lived. Two years later she had a breakdown and the Graham's took them in whilst a foster family was found. The foster mother was cruel to Cornwell. The breakdowns continued and the children moved in and out of foster care. External Website

Films/Videos Hamilton ​ 2020 Hamilton is a live stage production recording of the Broadway musical, Hamiliton. The musical was created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, inspired by Ron Chernow (2004) biography, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton tells the story of Alexander Hamilton, one of America's Founding Fathers, from orphaned immigrant to first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. External Website

Non Fiction Superheroes, Orphans and Origins: 125 Years in Comics Foundling Museum 2022 Many of the most inspiring characters in comics and graphic novels began their epic journeys as orphaned or abandoned children. In these stories, the loss of a parent inflicts challenges that even superpowers cannot easily resolve. For over a century and millions of readers, the comic strip is a space in which this narrative has been continuously reimagined. Superheroes, Orphans & Origins: 125 Years in Comics offers a richly illustrated and thought-provoking exploration of the representation of orphans, foundlings, adoptees and foster children in sequential art. Surveying 125 years of creative practice and an international cast of characters, this book examines how care-experience is depicted in early comic strips like Little Orphan Annie, celebrated superhero narratives including Superman and Batman, and popular Japanese manga, among other examples. The complex issues and identities that feature in these stories are considered from a variety of perspectives, ranging from art historical to activist. Contributing authors include Lemn Sissay, MBE and award-winning artists Carlos Giménez and Lisa Wool- Rim Sjöblom, all drawing inspiration from their own experiences in care. Bringing together critical essays, candid conversations and outstanding artwork, this book encourages a new way to experience comics. This book is published on the occasion of the first major exhibition to focus on the representation of care experience in comics, produced by the Foundling Museum in London (April – August 2022). External Website

Non Fiction What Happened to You? Ophrah Winfrey 2021 With trauma expert, Dr Bruce Perry, Oprah Winfrey discusses the impact of trauma and insists that conversations must begin with asking: "what happened to you" instead of "what's wrong with you". Throughout the book, Oprah shares some of her traumatic experiences, including her time in kinship care as a small girl. External Website

Films/Videos The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes ​ 2022 The documentary was directed by filmmaker Emma Cooper for Netflix. It features Irish journalist and Marilyn Monroe expert going through archival footage and interviews he conducted with people over a 3 year period 20 years after Monroe's death. Summer's conclusion is that Marilyn Monroe accidentently or deliberately killed herself with an overdose of drugs and alcohol. External Website

Films/Videos How the Grinch Stole Christmas ​ 2000 How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a movie starring Jim Carrey, Taylor Momsen, and Kelley. On the outskirts of Whoville lives a green, revenge-seeking Grinch who plans to ruin Christmas for all of the citizens of the town. The Grinch arrived in Whoville as a baby and was adopted by two elderly sisters. He was a timid child and wasn't as cruel as he would later become. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Wanting Richard Flanagan 2008 The multi-award winning Wanting (2008) by Australian writer Richard Flanagan revolves around the story of John Franklin as Governor of Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land) (1837-1843) adopting an orphaned Aboriginal Australian girl, Mathinna (b 1835 on Flinders Island). When Franklin is recalled to London, Mathinna is abandoned to the St John's Orphan School in Hobart. Flanagan was inspired to write about Mathina because he had seen a portrait of her storage and was curious about this intelligent and gifted girl who was "utterly destroyed by the intention of seeking to make her white" https://www.ourtasmania.com.au/people-mathinna.html External Website

Performing Arts Karise Eden Karise Eden ​ Australian singer, Karise Eden (b. 1992), was in and out of foster care as a child. Karise's mother struggled with the care of her daughters, who often spent weekends with a respite foster care family. As a teenager and a ward of the NSW state, Karise lived in a significant number of women's refuges. When she eventually reconnected with her foster family, her foster father or 'uncle' taught her how to play guitar. Karise won the inaugural The Voice Australia competition in 2012. External Website

Films/Videos News of the World ​ 2021 News of the World is a 2020 American Western drama film co-written and directed by Paul Greengrass, based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Paulette Jiles, and starring Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel. The film follows a Civil War veteran who must return a young orphan girl who was taken in by Native Americans as an infant to her last remaining family. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience When She Was Good Michael Robotham (2020) 2020 When She Was Good in the 2nd in Michael Robotham Cyrus Haven series. In this story, Cyrus finds out who abducted and assaulted Evie prior to her going into state care. Some of the 'baddies' in the story have a Care Experience background. There’s a Care Experienced character who’s convicted of kidnapping kids, another one whose chauffeuring job includes taking a child from paedophile to paedophile (but who comes good in the end), and the ring-leader paedophile was orphaned in high school. External Website

Films/Videos The Marvellous Martha ​ 2023 The Marvelous Martha” (2023) tells the story of Martha Matilda Harper (1857-1950) who started life as a domestic servant (at the age of 7!!) and who ended up pioneering the business model we know as franchising. The first Harper Method Hair Parlor opened in 1888 in Rochester, New York. In 1893 her first franchise business was set up by Bertha Palmer in Buffalo New York. Martha Matilda Harper actively encouraged women who were servants as she had been to set up in business. She trained the franchisees and monitored their stories. At the height of her success, Harper had something like 500 franchises. Within each one she also sold hair care products. External Website

Films/Videos Three Identical Strangers ​ 2018 Edward Galland, David Kellman and Robert Shafran were born a set of identical triplets but then adopted by 3 different families. This documentary explores their lives and the social experiement they were a part of. External Website