Twinsters

As Disconnect, Men, Women & Children, and other fictional films by thirtysomething white men try desperately to warn us, the internet keeps us from truly connecting with one another. Except for when it does, as in the uplifting documentary Twinsters by two twentysomething people of color, Samantha Futerman and Ryan Miyamoto. Twinsters follows Korean-American adoptee and character actress Samantha as she discovers that she has a twin sister named Anaïs Bordier living in London.

It's actually Anaïs who discovers Samantha, when a friend points out that a woman in a YouTube video looks just like her. They realize they were born on the same day in Korea, and after much Facebooking, Skyping, and texting, Samantha travels to England. The erstwhile sisters' meeting in person is simultaneously awkward and joyous; Samantha and Anaïs are both overcome by delirious laughter, because how else can you react? Each is clearly the other's missing piece, but Anaïs's French upbringing adds culture shock to an already surreal experience (Samantha: "Oh my God! You're European!"), as does the fact that the moodier Anaïs had a troubled childhood and has very mixed feelings about having been adopted. Twinsters is a heartwarming true story that might not have happened without social media, so score one for modern technology.