South Africa has a most advanced Constitution, it promulgates equal rights for all. Despite this progress, when it comes to adoption – lesbian couples are at the bottom of the priority list. Waited For weaves three personal stories of adoption. Inter-racial couple Kelly and Leigh-Ann embark on the journey to adopt a baby. For a year they let old-fashioned socialcrats vet their house, relationship and cultural sensitivities, and wait for the phone to ring. New Zealander Pip and South African Lee have two adopted daughters that have introduced more pink in to their lives than they were anticipating. Pip views New Zealand as an escape route, but Lee is not convinced and wants the girls to grow up in South Africa. Single mother, builder and recovering addict Paula trusts that the multiracial environment she has raised her 2-year old in won’t turn him into a “coconut”. Gentle and thoughtful, personal, yet quietly political, the film plots the various stages of the process, and the five mothers discuss their fears, joys, frustrations and expectations of adoptive motherhood in “post-race” South Africa.
Nerina Penzhorn grew up in South Africa and lives in New York. After graduating from the University of Cape Town, Nerina traveled to California and was lucky to land a job at Outfest, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. It is here that the filmmaking bug bit. She started out in post-production in LA and then moved to New York where she makes a living as a video editor, producer and teacher. In New York Nerina also started working on her own projects. Her first short documentary Saint Jude screened at festivals in the US and Mexico. She was delighted to come back to South Africa to make her first feature documentary Waited For and is very happy to be screening it to a South African audience at Out In Africa.










