Between 2016 and 2020, household YouTube stars Myka and James Stauffer exhaustively chronicled their journey of adopting a boy with particular wants from China. The couple’s story of welcoming the kid, who they known as Huxley, into their household of 5 started a brand new period of success for the Ohio-based vloggers, whose adoption video of Huxley alone introduced in additional than 5 million views.
However their ascendant enterprise, the place Huxley was a star, got here crashing down in 2020, when the couple launched a video revealing that they’d discovered a brand new residence for the boy. They mentioned their adoption termination resulted from their realization that they couldn’t adequately take care of Huxley and his medical points — prompting widespread backlash that in the end led to Myka disappearing from public life. (“Huxley” is not the kid’s title, and James nonetheless has an lively YouTube channel centered on automobile care, with over a million subscribers.)
That story is now the topic of a brand new three-part docuseries from filmmaker Rachel Mason (Circus of Books) that premiered on the Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday. In An Replace on Our Household, which is able to ultimately stream on Max, Mason seems on the Stauffers’ story from a variety of angles. She speaks with different household vloggers, adoption specialists, journalists and adoptive dad and mom, a few of whom supply vital views of the Stauffers and others who’re extra forgiving. “I really feel prefer it’s vital to offer compassion to individuals, though there’s plenty of judgment and doubtless there’s some rightful causes for that judgment,” defined Mason in an interview on Tuesday. “I’m extra trying to broaden the story to grasp extra.”
In her interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Mason additionally mentioned the preliminary media protection of the Stauffer story, the shortage of regulation on the household vlogging enterprise and the standing of her documentary on late Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was Mason’s shut good friend.
An Replace on Our Household
Vox Media Studios
What initially you about this story?
What drew me to the Stauffer story was the truth that they represented a world that’s extremely in demand so far as content material. Their story being traumatic was attention-grabbing, nevertheless it additionally made me suppose, wow, I ponder what number of different tales there are that we’re simply nonetheless on the sting of studying about? The Stauffers [are] an instance that our sequence challenges on some stage: Are they an instance of individuals which are the worst dad and mom or are they doing issues to feed an viewers demand that has gotten uncontrolled inside an trade that’s unregulated? When you find yourself amateurs and your present is your loved ones and also you don’t have any producers or anybody providing you with any guardrails, there’s so many issues that may go fallacious. The story of what they did with Huxley is just about the tip of the iceberg of what we’re beginning to be taught exists inside that sphere, shifting ahead to the current day.
Hannah Cho, a Phoenix, AZ girl who was a fan of the Stauffers and is an adoptee herself, is a recurring character in your sequence who frames the story. What was behind the choice to have her in that function?
Hannah is such a miracle of an individual for us as a result of she actually encapsulated all three tracks that we would have liked with a view to assist the viewer perceive the depth and the nuance that was vital for this. Hannah was herself any person that made her personal content material together with her daughter for some time, so she was, in essence, a participant, she was a mommy blogger. And she or he additionally was a shopper of household channels and an enormous fan of the Stauffers, which she admitted to. However then she’s a transracial adoptee from Korea adopted by white dad and mom in America — that was the place her depth of storytelling got here into full focus; so lots of the precise biographical particulars of her story observe with Huxley. She might actively converse on some stage for the expertise of a kid that got here from that background. These three issues made her probably the most beneficial storyteller possible. But in addition, she was so forthcoming in speaking to us about each single side of her emotions in direction of the Stauffers and her emotions are nuanced. They make clear many dimensions inside the Stauffer story, together with the great facet.
Whereas many household vlogs don’t blur out the faces of the kids they function, your docuseries does in lots of cases. Inform me somewhat bit about that selection.
We made a dedication that infants had been okay [to show] as a result of infants exist in a spectrum the place they’re unrecognizable after they become old if you happen to’ve seen them as a child. However any content material that we discovered with kids on the Web that we had been utilizing, we blurred the faces of the kids. The selection [was] one among consent: If the youngsters and their dad and mom particularly hadn’t consented to be on this movie, this movie is counting on truthful use arguments, and though we really might fair-use that, we determined [that] the adults we belief to have given consent for themselves, however we will’t assume that for these kids.
On the flip facet, any [family channels] like the Earls and Channon Rose that we straight labored with, we had sufficient engagement with them and sufficient particular dialogue about what we had been going to do and the way we had been going to movie their kids that, given their consent, we felt okay utilizing very restricted quantities of their faces — we didn’t lean into it closely. We additionally wished it to be clear that we’re not attempting to use these individuals. They’re serving to us perceive what they do in a extremely, really significant manner. In addition they helped us perceive the fact of what it actually means to make that call to work with your loved ones and to grapple with all of the ethics of it, which I do consider they’re attempting to do consistently and in a significant manner.
The Stauffers have largely appeared within the media as villains, however the movie exhibits some compassion for his or her scenario. Why did you need to complicate or add shades of grey to the portrait of the household that was on the market?
For me, it was actually vital to problem this concept that this was a easy case of “These are unhealthy individuals, let’s condemn them” and do precisely what, frankly, articles within the media have completed, which is simply to say how unhealthy these persons are. As a result of the extra I got here to grasp not simply the Stauffers however the total scenario of the Stauffers, the extra I discovered it was essential to be taught the reality about what they’d gone via, which no person had ever offered. What’s that prefer to undertake a toddler after which must dissolve that adoption? And what’s that really like for anybody that does that?
We made absolute sure to fully defend [Huxley’s] id, after all. However the those who shamed the Stauffers, together with many writers and journalists, felt no compulsion to do this. They shared his face in lots of articles and in lots of movies. So once you hear from those who declare to care about this little one however don’t care sufficient to hide his id, it does increase that query, effectively, what’s your precise concern right here? To me, having true concern for youngsters means you additionally care in regards to the Stauffer kids. They need to be equally in your thoughts. There’s a query about monetization as effectively that by no means appears to get probed any deeper. What’s the accountability of those firms that proceed to push individuals and incentivize them to do extra outlandish issues with their kids and their content material? And so in some methods I used to be fascinated by the questions that weren’t requested by different journalists, the massive obtrusive ones. The Stauffers ended up offering plenty of data and plenty of helpful dialogue even though we will say trauma was positively an element of their story for positive.
Did you come away from this filmmaking course of with any specific ideas in regards to the guardrails or laws that must be placed on this trade?
Really, from the time we began [this film] till now, YouTube has began to broaden the guardrails. They’re much more cautious even once you’re posting content material, they ask if there’s kids within the content material in ways in which weren’t there [before]. So I do really feel that YouTube is a minimum of making an attempt to make some adjustments, however I positively have issues for content material that may slide via. The largest concern, actually, is actual little one abuse. It might be psychological, verbal, issues that promote a channel and exploit a toddler in methods which are, I’d say, generally arduous to see. And I believe that’s the place the Ruby Franke story is the one which I believe in all probability has blown the Stauffer story fully out of the water.
That being mentioned, the flip facet of it’s I positively really feel there are good individuals making content material that’s really no totally different from The Kardashians or the rest that we view within the mainstream. So why ought to that be censored if we stay in a tradition the place we really do belief dad and mom to make choices? And but the Coogan [Law] and legal guidelines that defend kids exist within the trade of mainstream leisure. Ought to one thing like that exist for YouTubers? In all probability. And that’s the place I believe we have to determine that out. We haven’t censored kids from being in mainstream [entertainment]. We’ve simply discovered methods to make it work.
You’re presently engaged on a documentary about your late good friend, Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, with the help of her husband, Matt Hutchins. What’s the standing of that movie in the intervening time, and can you be on the Alec Baldwin trial?
Sure, Halyna was a extremely, actually shut good friend of mine and I used to be tasked to make this movie by her widower, Matt, who is an effective good friend as effectively. And principally the place that venture is presently is we’re in edit. We’ve completed plenty of our main interviews. And sure, I can be on the trial with Alec Baldwin. I don’t know precisely which day, however we had been at Hannah [Gutierrez-Reed]’s trial and it’s vital for me as a filmmaker, but additionally simply as her good friend, to be there.
Filmmaker Rory Kennedy can also be doing a Rust documentary, this one seemingly centered on Baldwin. Have you ever two spoken in any respect about your approaches to the fabric or ran into one another through the filmmaking course of?
I’d love to satisfy Rory. I’m really a fan of her work and I’m actually fascinated with that and I’m tremendous curious to speak to her. I haven’t but, however I positively would like to. It’s in all probability protected to imagine I would meet her on the trial if she’s there once I’m there.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
