Sunshine: A Real Life Tale of Single Parenthood and Adoption

An unplanned pregnancy for an unprepared girl sets off Sunshine, a moving self-portrait of a woman driven to search for answers through reconnection with her biological mother. Filmmaker Karen Skloss explores the meaning of family through a personal journey to understand both the legacy of her birth and the non-traditional family she created by co-parenting with her ex-boyfriend.

Karen’s story starts in 1975, two years after Roe vs. Wade, when her mother’s unplanned pregnancy led her to an Austin home for unwed mothers. She had Karen in secret and then placed her with an adoptive family. Decades later when Karen herself becomes pregnant, is history repeating itself?

Woven together from over ten years of super-8 and video home movies, family interviews, dance sequences and reenactments, Sunshine offers an intimate look at the current transformations taking place within the family as it explores adoption, single motherhood, and the role of fathers.

Sunshine premieres on May 4th on Independent Lens (check local listings), the Emmy Award-winning series on PBS hosted by Maggie Gyllenhaal — mom, actress and Academy Award nominee. To buy a DVD of Sunshine before, during or after its broadcast please visit the film’s website, where you can watch a trailer and learn more about the filmmaker.