The Documentary "Babies"- thumbs down! Your opinio

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chavamom

Fri, Oct 22 2010, 3:12 am

Tablepoetry wrote:

I didn't get the feeling anyone was glorified. If anything, I came away stunned that people still live in such basic conditions today. The African family practically lived in the dust and dirt, the baby played with dust, ate dust....the film did seem to hint that a baby can grow up happy even like that. But it did nothing to hide or glorify the very primitive conditions there.

Right. I read an article about the African woman. She actually agreed to be in the movie in order to be able to pay for her daughter to give birth in a hospital and avoid the infection and hemorrhage risks of giving birth in their primitive conditions (see, I don't always think giving birth at home is a glorious, wonderful choice).

chavamom

Fri, Oct 22 2010, 3:18 am

http://www.focusfeatures.com/a.....rents

Inspired

Fri, Oct 22 2010, 4:49 am

chavamom wrote:

manhattanmom wrote:

I also watched it.
I do agree that they kind of glorified the family in Africa (with true attachment parenting.)

What disturbed me a drop--is that the baby from somewhere in East Asia (maybe Malaysia??) spent a LOT of time alone--meaning not in a language-rich environment like no interaction with other babies, adults, etc.. It showed a lot of the baby playing with rocks, dirt, sticks, the cat, etc. by himself with the occasional older brother hitting him or something like that if I remember correctly...

Mongolia. Yes, there was an awful lot of unsupervised mischief there. And it certainly wasn't glorified...it just was. I felt the same way about the child in Africa. It was what it was. If someone wanted to glorify "attachment parenting", they certainly would have presented a prettier picture of the Californian couple.

OK, obviously I saw it. I organized a whole group of nursing students and friends to see it and pretty much everyone loved it. I'm shocked so many here had such a negative reaction.

I agree. I found it very enjoyable. But then again I love learning about cultures, especially mothers and babies.

marina

Fri, Oct 22 2010, 8:20 am

It's a movie about how despite all our differences, we are all very much the same.

Leave to imamother to start a whole thread negatively focusing on the differences.

cookiemilk

Sun, Oct 24 2010, 6:26 pm

oh my gosh, marina, we are not starting a whole thread to focus on differences, we are merely using our right to and freedom of speech to critique parts of the documentary, since every work of art and social comentary is and always will be, an extention of its makers. Now some of us believed that they may have been tainted by certain biases which tend to belittle advances made in the quality of living and health conditions of residents in the first world countries.
Now you of course have a right to think differently, it would be boring to say the least, if we all came out of the screening thinking the way you do. Wink

chavamom

Sun, Oct 24 2010, 6:32 pm

My take on things is not that it was trying to glorify attachment parenting, but it did show the kids who had "less" as happier than those who had helicopter parents. Scandalous, I know Wink

chaylizi

Sun, Oct 24 2010, 7:10 pm

I personally enjoyed it very much. I didn't spend too much time analyzing it.

ChutzPAh

Sun, Oct 24 2010, 8:54 pm

Marina, I simply wanted to know if other Imamothrs liked or disliked this film, which I found too boring to sit through, depite being on a trans-atlantic flight. I was curious if the "crunchy" crowd liked it, which it apprears they did.

On another note, I don't recall seeing any male figure associated with the African woman and her kids.

chavamom

Sun, Oct 24 2010, 9:22 pm

ChutzPAh wrote:

On another note, I don't recall seeing any male figure associated with the African woman and her kids.

They travel with some herds in search of water. If you read the article I linked, there is a father involved.

chavamom

Sun, Oct 24 2010, 9:23 pm

BTW - I would hardly count Marina in the "natural" crowd Wink

ChutzPAh

Sun, Oct 24 2010, 9:42 pm

Chava, I didn't read the link- was merely thinking outloud. And I know Marina isn't a member of the Imamother Natural Society Tongue Out

. I didn't start this thread to fight, I was merely curious of what others thought of the film.

DefyGravity

Tue, Oct 26 2010, 11:30 am

After reading this thread, I decided to watch Babies last night on Netflix. I thought it was very interesting!

I felt so bad for the Mongolian baby. . . he seemed to get very little attention from his parents and I'm surprised that even with all of his wandering, he never got badly hurt. Or strangled himself while being tethered to the bed.

It was so interesting to see how the African babies lived. Even in such filthy conditions, they were perfectly happy and seemed like such joyful kids. If it wasn't for all the dust and grossness, it almost seemed like an idyllic life.

The documentary was such an eye-opener! I enjoyed it.

Hashem_Yaazor

Tue, Oct 26 2010, 11:42 am

Of course kids are happy in filthy conditions. It's getting them to take baths that causes heartache Tongue Out

(I meant that in jest. But seriously, I spent a good 10 minutes trying to get mud not to stain my son's pants. I gave up.)

DefyGravity

Tue, Oct 26 2010, 2:27 pm

Good point. I loved being filthy as a kid. I guess I was more impressed that the mothers seemed happy and content despite the conditions.

Ruchel

Tue, Oct 26 2010, 2:29 pm

Mati thinks "bathing makes you sick". Especially washing the hair. What can I say, she's such a shtetl kid LOL

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