There's no doubt that adoption is a hot topic these days.

For starters, Nickelodeon is coming out with a cartoon voiced by a young adoptee from China, and there are a couple of books getting press at the moment that have adoption-related story lines.

I may eventually address the new t-shirt Urban Outfitters has come out with that supposedly reads,

"Adoption: the New Black"

but I can't get on their site today, so I'll leave them alone for a while.

Adoption as a trendy way to accessorize a family is about as offensive a concept as I can imagine, but apparently some adult adoptees find the slogan amusing as all get-out.

As I said, though, I'm not going there right now.

I'm also not heading down the celebrity adoption trail, nor biting into the debate of the "Robinsons" sandwich that has given people so much to chew on lately, or even latching on to the "Madonna as an evangelist" concept that's making news in some corners.

No. Today we're looking at real life, or real life as portrayed in the way that documentary film-making portrays real life.

Unlike Oscar-contender "The Blood of the Yingzhou District" which looked at Chinese orphans in China and their lot, a new film, "Adopted: The New American Family" deals directly with international adoption, and from two different angles.

One facet of the documentary follows an American couple through the process of adopting from China. The other follows an adult Korean-born adoptee as she deals with the terminal illness of her adoptive mom and struggles with identity issues.

Directed by Barb Lee and produced by Nancy Kim Parsons, both adopted from Korea by American families, the film was one of only 32 picked out of 300 applicants for this year's Tribeca All Access 2007 film competition.

For more information on the film, see their site. There's a scene there you can watch that many may find familiar ... the adopting family as they they get the phone call with the referral information and accept the referral, the step that makes them parents.