A Simple Piece of Paper

Jean Strauss, documentary filmmaker, New York Times bestselling author, and legislative activist has been writing books and making films about post adoption issues for the past twenty-six years. Her works have won numerous awards and accolades, but most important to her is that her films are being used to help educate others about what the secrets and legal barriers about one's own information can feel like - and to inspire discussion about the issue of adoption reform. As Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Darryl McDaniels of RUN DMC has said, "No one starts a book from chapter one. But adoptees' live their lives from chapter two. All we want is to know the beginning of our own story." 

A graduate of UC Berkeley and USC, she began working in adoption reform following her own reunion with her birth family in 1988. Completing an MFA in Writing this spring, the wife of a college president and mother of two grown sons, she began making films at the age of 50. With A Simple Piece of Paper, she marries her twin passions of adoption reform and filmmaking. Many herald her work as having helped educate legislators, across the country, providing one of the many voices that have brought about reform in adoption in America.