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Blogs/Web Pages/Articles Whatever happened to the little girl who played Annie? Lisa Flowers 2018 Since its inception in 1924, Little Orphan Annie has become an American icon. Actress Aileen Quinn adopted the role in 1982 for the John Huston-directed film, forever cementing her place in pop culture. This article explores what happened to Aileen Quinn later in her life. External Website

Films/Videos Summerland ​ 2004 Summerland is a TV series starring Lori Loughlin, Merrin Dungey, and Ryan Kwanten. Bradin, Nikki and Derrick are 3 kids from an average normal Kansas household. Their whole life is thrown upside-down when their parents are killed, and the children move from Kansas to California to live with their fashion designer aunt and her housemates. External Website

Films/Videos Jojo Rabbitt ​ 2019 Jojo Betzlers is a member of Hitler Youth during the latter stages of WWII. His pro-Nazi views are challenged when he finds out that his mother has a teenage Jewish girl in hiding upstairs. The film was inspired by the 2019 book by Christine Leunens, Caging Skies. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Wild Pork and Watercress Barry Crump 2016 This rattling good yarn has now been made into a major movie- Hunt For the Wilderpeople. When Social Welfare threatens to put Ricky into care, the overweight Maori boy and cantankerous Uncle Hec flee into the remote and rugged Ureweras. The impassable bush serves up perilous adventures, forcing the pair of misfits to use all their skills to survive hunger, wild pigs and the vagaries of the weather. Worse still are the authorities, determined to bring Ricky and Uncle Hec to justice. But despite the difficulties of life on the run, a bond of trust and love blossoms between the world-weary man and his withdrawn side-kick. External Website

Films/Videos The Thirteenth Tale ​ 2014 Biographer Margaret Lea (Olivia Colman) arrives at the country house of famous novelist Vida Winter (Vanessa Redgrave). She has been invited to stay there and help Vida write her biography before she dies of cancer. Margaret is hesitant, as Vida is known for telling a different story each time she is asked about her background in interviews, so she requests some verifiable information from public record. Vida reveals her birth name was Adeline March and the local newspapers wrote about a fire that burned down her family home when she was seventeen, of which she bears proof in the form of a key-shaped burn on her palm. Vida tells her the events leading up to the fire. She grew up at Angelfield, the decaying family estate, with her identical twin sister Emmeline. Their mother Isabelle was suffered abuse at the hands of her unhinged brother, Charlie, and eventually taken away to a mental asylum, so the girls were mostly left to their own devices, becoming unruly, anti-social and running wild. The only adult supervision they had came from the two servants, nicknamed "Missus" and "John-the-dig." Ambrose, a young man who is the hired help gets Emmaline pregnant. This leads to Adeline trying to kill the baby. Margaret works out there were three girls at Angelfield. Vida confirms this, revealing she wasn't Adeline, but presumably the daughter of Charlie, abandoned at the estate by her unknown mother. The real Adeline was dangerously violent and jealous of anyone who got Emmeline's attention. This means there three orphans at the house. Margaret reveals her story and admits that she herself had a twin who was fatally struck by a car as a child, a tragic accident for which Margaret has always blamed herself. External Website

Films/Videos Storm Damage ​ 2000 The film is about a young teacher who returns to the children's care home where he grew up, and becomes involved with the lives of the troubled teenage children. It was broadcast by BBC Two on 23 January 2000. External Website

Films/Videos Terminator 2: Judgement Day ​ 1991 John Connor, the future saviour of mankind, is a teenager in foster care (in the USA) in the early part of the film. He was placed with a foster family because his mother is incarcerated in a secure mental hospital, due to her belief - or firm knowledge, if you've seen 'The Terminator' (1984) - that mankind is shortly doomed to be almost destroyed by a robot uprising. There are a few scenes depicting the boy's foster family and, briefly, his poor relationship with them. After that, it's all mayhem and destruction once Arnold Schwarzenegger (the good Terminator) arrives and he helps John rescue his mother from the mental hospital and the clutches of the evil Terminator sent back in time to kill the boy to prevent mankind's salvation. The foster parents are killed by the evil Terminator, after it uses them to try to locate John Connor. External Website

Films/Videos Nothing Compares ​ 2022 Sinéad O'Connor (now Shuhada Sadaqat) famously made her own protest against child abuse by members of the catholic church when, in 1992, she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II during a Saturday Night Live performance. This incident, and the effect on O'Connor of subsequently becoming a pariah, is discussed in the 2022 documentary, Nothing Compares. The documentary was directed by Kathryn Ferguson for whom O'Connor was a hero, a woman radically ahead of her time in challenging racism and misyogy in the music industry, and in speaking out against child abuse. As Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote (5.10.23) in his review of Nothing Compares, all those who mocked O’Connor back in 1992 “would solemnly agree now on the issues O’Connor popularised.” External Website

Films/Videos Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom ​ 2013 This film of Nelson Mandela's life is based on his 1995 autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience Tell Morning This Kylie Tennant 1967 The story of young girls coping with the NSW child protection system. External Website

Fiction featuring Care Experience White Oleander Janet Fitch 2000 White Oleander is a painfully beautiful first novel about a young girl growing up the hard way. It is a powerful story of mothers and daughters, their ambiguous alliances, their selfish love and cruel behaviour, and the search for love and identity. Astrid has been raised by her mother, a beautiful, headstrong poet. Astrid forgives her everything as her world revolves around this beautiful creature until Ingrid murders a former lover and is imprisoned for life. Astrid's fierce determination to survive foster care and be loved makes her an unforgettable figure. External Website

Films/Videos Instant Family ​ 2018 Instant Family is a movie starring Mark Wahlberg, Rose Byrne, and Isabela Merced. A couple find themselves in over their heads when they foster and finally adopt three children. External Website

Films/Videos Louis Theroux: Saville ​ 2016 In 2000, British-American documentary maker, Louis Theroux (b. 1970) spent 3 months or so working with the infamous Jimmy Savile (1926-2011) on a documentary about the English media personality, When Louis Met Jimmy (2000) 15 years later, he set out to find out why he was so ‘gullible’, so taken in by Savile that he missed the truth of Savile’s longstanding criminal behaviour. Louis Theroux: Savile (2016) is the result. The film includes interviews with those who were victims of Savile, including Kat who was in state care while at boarding school. It also includes interviews with those who knew and worked with Savile, some of whom still find it hard to believe Savile’s behaviour. External Website

Films/Videos Blue Miracle ​ 2021 To save their orphanage in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, which is sliding into financial disaster, the children's guardian and a group of the boys team up with a grumpy former marlin fishing champion to attempt to win a lucrative fishing competition. External Website

Films/Videos Santa Claus: The Movie ​ 1985 Santa is exhausted by his ever-growing workload & he enlists an assistant, Patch. Santa befriends homeless orphan boy Joe & takes him for a ride in his sleigh. They meet wealthy orphan girl Cornelia, who befriends Joe. Patch designs a machine which falls apart & he resigns. External Website

Films/Videos Black or White ​ 2014 Black or White (2014) is all about kinship care. 7 year old Eloise has been raised by her (white) maternal grandparents since her mother died in childbirth. Now her grandmother has died in a car accident and her other (black) grandmother wants custody. External Website

Films/Videos A Mother Finds Her Lost Child After a 40-year search ​ 2021 This is the moving story of Nanncy Davis Womac whose daughter finally found her 40 years after mom and baby were forcibly separated and the baby adopted. There's a larger story in the video of an evangelical pastor setting up homes for 'troubled' teenagers. Lester Roloff (1914-1982) is written of positively in Wikipedia, but there were complaints from some that he was running a 'private prison', brainwashing and brutalising girls. In 1973 Roloff signed an agreement with the State of Texas that he would stop handcuffing girls - which he did to prevent them running away. External Website

Films/Videos Two Heads Creek ​ 2019 Two Heads Creek (2019) is an Australian and British horror film. While grieving their mother, Norman (Jordan Waller) and Anna (Kathryn Wilder) find out that Gabrielle had adopted them. They also discover that their birth mother, Mary (Kerry Armstrong), lives in a small, remote Australian town called Two Heads Creek. Arriving in Two Heads Creek, the siblings learn Mary owns all the local businesses. Although Mary had sent Norman and Anna away, she had kept up with their lives and was proud of them. External Website

Films/Videos Kids ​ 2023 Channel 4 in the UK commissioned a documentary about the care system. The 3 part documentary series, KIDS, was directed by Paddy Wivell and was enabled by the Coventry Children's Service. "Hearing from foster carers, social workers, service managers and children's home staff Kids lays bare the high-stakes decision making in trying to protect young people, and meets the parents who've had their children forcibly removed." External Website

Films/Videos Mommie Deariest (film) ​ 1981 An adaptation of Christina Crawford's 1978 memoir, this film depicts American film star, Joan Crawford, as Christina's abusive adoptive mother. External Website