Made in China
is the story of filmmaker John Helde's search to understand his father's remarkable childhood as a white kid growing up in China. Growing up in 1970's suburbia, John knew his white American father was born in China - but beyond that, his dad's past remained a mystery. Beginning with Tom's bittersweet birth on a remote Sichuan mountaintop, the film uncovers the stories of a generation of Caucasian kids raised in China - children who grew up with a foot in two cultures, spoke Chinese as a first language, and lived with war and unrest outside their doorstep. In the process of shooting, the filmmaker and his father grow closer than they've ever been, and John proposes a trip to China - thinking that by finding the places Tom once lived, the two can share in this past together. But when Tom dies of cancer, China falls to John alone. His journey across modern China, with new friends as tour guides, becomes an exploration of what "home" really means.
