Hartenwens

In the American state of New Mexico, the Children, Youth and Families Department annually puts three thousand children in foster care. The children, who have been taken from their parents due to neglect or domestic violence, are often fairly old. Because this usually makes it harder to find foster families for them, the 'Hearts Gallery' was conceived. In this project, professional glamour photographers are called in to make appealing portraits of the children. Potential parents are then invited to the exhibition of the pictures. It is just one of the 'marketing tricks' to find them a home, as director Hans Heijnen shows in his documentary. Trick or no trick, it is vital that the Hearts Gallery works. Heijnen talks to initiator Diane Granito and introduces several children who talk about their at times shocking past and the consequences the project has had on their personal lives.