Love Chaos Kin Is Going to the Movies

One of the more distinctive memories I have of my childhood is me watching news anchors on TV and wishing that someday I would be on screen. Call it manifesting, call it wishful thinking but, I remembered it when I got an email from Chithra with the link to the screening at Laemmle in North Hollywood. Since May of last year, the film has made its ways through over twenty film festivals world over. It has won awards. At every screening I have been in, people have come up after the film, tears in their eyes and hugged me.

The film screening for seven days in a theater feels different. Film festivals are curated, people who come are already there because of their love for celluloid. In a theater though, it feels like it is suddenly accessible to people like you and me.

If you are new here, a quick catch-up. Love Chaos Kin is Chithra Jeyaram‘s feature documentary about our family. Our twins, white-presenting and of Navajo descent, were adopted as infants and raised by us, their Indian immigrant parents. The film follows what happened when we chose to stay connected: the long, imperfect, sometimes uncomfortable reconnection with their birth mother and their Navajo birth family. The film tracks twelve years of our adoption; Chithra filmed us for eight of them. What I love about the film is how she holds the nuance in this complex relationship. We are each flawed, imperfect and human.

Here is what most people do not see. Love Chaos Kin has no distributor, no sales agent, no studio. Every festival application, every theater booking, every poster and postcard and press email comes from one person: Chithra. She teaches, she edits, she runs, and in between she has built this entire film run herself, city by city. When I say the film is moving, I mean she is moving it.

So, this fall, we are in a bunch of places. I hope you will come out to see the film and bring your friends along with you.

Los Angeles, October 9 to 15. A seven-day theatrical run at the Laemmle NoHo 7, three shows a day, with Q&As all week. This is an Oscar-qualifying run. Tickets are on sale now.

London, October 21. The UK premiere, as the Opening Night Film of the London Breeze Film Festival at the Regent Street Cinema, with a Q&A and reception.

Surrey, British Columbia, September 27. The Canadian premiere at the International South Asian Film Festival, with a Q&A with Chithra.

Newburyport, Massachusetts, October 4 at 4 PM. A single screening at The Screening Room, with a Q&A with Chithra.

Jonquière, Quebec, November 6, as the opening film of the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal‘s mini-edition in the Saguenay. Sedona on November 7, Phoenix on November 10, and Amherst on November 13, with the Rudd Adoption Research Program at UMass Amherst. Then Kathmandu, November 26 to 29, the South Asian premiere at Film Southasia. More cities are close to confirmation.

And the one I want most, a hometown screening. Paoli, October 6 at 3:30 PM, at Delaware Valley Friends School, open to the public, with a Q&A with Chithra and us. RSVP here. A theater in Philadelphia before the year ends is still on the wish list.

Now the ask. If this film has meant something to you, or if this newsletter has, here is what helps most, smallest ask first:

If you are in Los Angeles, or know anyone who is: come, and bring someone. Tickets are at laemmle.com. A packed opening week in LA is what convinces other theaters across the country to book the film.

If you are in or near London: October 21, Regent Street Cinema. Come say hello. We are working on getting the family there.

Wherever you are: request a screening. There is a form at lovechaoskinmovie.com. If you are connected to a theater, a campus, a library system, an adoption organization, a temple, a school, tell them about the film. Theaters program films people ask for.

If you run a business or know someone who wishes they were adjacent to the arts: sponsor. The support link is on the film’s website. Every cost of this run, the theater, the trailer, the travel, is currently out of one filmmaker’s pocket.

If you know press, a podcast, a newsletter: introduce us. Reply to this and I will connect you with Chithra.

Or simply forward this to one person who cares about adoption, family, and belonging.

October is close. Send us your good juju. And if I see you in a lobby in LA or London or somewhere near Philadelphia, come find me. I will be the one hovering anxiously outside.

If this moved you, send a tip.