Overview

On December 30, 2021, the worst wildfire in Colorado history rages through filmmaker Dewi Sungai’s community. A fire has been raging inside Dewi, too. Born to a young single mother on Indonesian soil, Dewi was adopted by white American parents as an infant, renamed “Amy,” and raised in white suburbia in the U.S.— a story her parents framed as a simple, happy story. But Dewi is noticing the cracks in their narrative. She realizes she is not, never has been, the daughter they see. Driven by a deep sense of loss of her culture, family, and land, Dewi discovers and reclaims her birth name, builds community with other transracial adoptees, and begins excavating stories from her Native Bornean ancestry. It pushes her relationship with her 83-year-old adoptive mother to the brink.

1. Dewi Sungai Marquis-Houston

   Director, Writer