Humankind has always held a certain fascination for babies. We see a baby and our automatic response is generally one along the lines of “awwe”. New mothers often experience an increase in attention from strangers when going out in public with their new children. The bottom line is we love babies. Their big eyes and general helplessness evokes a certain almost maternal desire in each of us. Aside from the obvious psychological and evolutionary science behind these emotions, infancy is a universally significant time that transcends all cultures. The documentary Babies choses to explore this time by examining four newborns and their mothers in Nambia, Mongolia, the United States, and Japan. The sequence of the film follows the babies developmental …show more content…
Looking to the primary circular reactions we learned about in class, one is able to watch each of these babies go through these changes. From Panijao rooting around on his brother 's stomach and putting every foreign object he can find in his mouth, to baby Mari making a real mess when her father takes her to work, to Hattie handing banana peelings to her parents, despite their geographical distances all the children walk through the different stages of development equally. The method by which this film chooses to takes several still shots of these developments makes their equality ever more …show more content…
Bayar grows up around herds of cattle and goats and spends much of his time out in the yard with the animals. In contrast, when Mari has the chance to visit a zoo in Tokyo, seeing the tiger makes her cry almost automatically. However, this experience then goes on to pose the question of how would Bayar handle the city of Tokyo? Would it make him feel uneasy? This was one of the things I found surprising about this film mostly because I had never spent much time truly thinking about how the environments we grow up in effect what seems natural to
Babies is a Documentary produced by Thomas Balmes who originally got the idea from Alain Chabat. It is set in the present time in four different countries and four very different settings. These babies are documented from birth to just after one year and shows four different perspectives of how different cultures raise their children. From a tribe in Nambia, a remote location in Mongolia, a large city in Japan, to San Francisco California; babies is based on the common theme of human discovery, interaction, and love.
In today’s world we tend to be caught up in our own personal bubbles. We don’t realize what goes on outside of our world and the myriad of subcultures that exist. The main problem with this is, once we become aware of the people that live outside of our culture and our norms, we tend to not understand their lifestyle and think that they are abnormal or psychotic. Through the various documentaries that we have explored this semester, I have experienced a change in emotion and thought. Every documentary we watched did not make sense to me. However, I realized that once you really dig deep and try to understand these people and their motives, you can uncover the way they affect our society.
W. S. Ross once said “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” As simple as this quip may sound, its complex implications are amplified through the life of every person born since the beginning of humanity. What attribute makes a mother such an extraordinary influence over her young? One such attribute is the ability to nurture. Beyond the normal challenges of cooking, cleaning, schooling, singing, feeding, and changing is the motivation by which such sacrifices are made possible. One cannot raise a child without mutual respect. Emotion and anxiety must drive her instincts. Her ability to foster is only heightened by minute personal imperfections and overwhelming responsibility that lead to a lack of confidence. Yet the prevailing characteristic that separates a ‘birth giver’ from a ‘mother’ is the unconditional, undying, and at times underestimated love for her child. To be a mother in the purest sense, she must embrace this notion of nurture.
“Babies”. Is a documentary made by the Thomas Balmés. It offers a window on the lives of four infants in four completely different cultures. This is not a usual kind of documentary; there are no narration, no subtitles and actual dialogue was very minimal. The film explores childhood rituals, enculturation, socialization and parenthood. I will try to explore each of these themes and try to make the case that behaviors, values and fears are learned not something congenital. It has, in my opinion, comparative perspectives and different methods in rearing children in different societies. It achieves this by cutting the scenes in certain ways to show the differences between these different children. For example, in one part of the film, both Bayarjargal (the Mongolian child) and Mari (the Japanese child) were playing with their pet cats and then the two scenes were edited to a shot of Ponijo (the Namibian child) looking interested in flies. The four children developed in somewhat similar ways. However, there are differences in their behaviors due to the enculturation by seeing their parents or siblings who were doing what they thought to be the norms and the obvious landscape in which they are brought up. Two of the kids were born in rural areas (Namibia and Mongolia) and two were born in urban areas (the United States and Japan). The mothers of these infants were interviewed and chosen to be in the film
Throughout the US, millions of POC students exposed to the traditional, rather outdated version of US History. Never do the textbooks explicitly mention and/ or explain the terrorizing, constant stripping down of others’ cultures and appropriating it into the dominant group of predominantly white, Anglo-Saxon and protestant. For many Mexican American students, they can’t relate to anything in the text, nor do they share an interest in the coursework provided. The way US history sets up doesn't teach and somehow excludes Indigenous backgrounds or for the most part was never taught in the classroom but, rather briefly mentioned in one or two paragraphs. Immigrants from diverse groups built this country yet their culture is consistently shown
When a woman gives birth to a child, it can be one of the most joyous and exciting moments in her life, yet it can also be diff...
As I grow up, I comprehend how much I can relate to the movie Parenthood. Although it 's not an exact replication of the movie I still have many instances that I can apply to my family. My family’s life is definitely the roller coaster because we have times of tremendous happiness, but also times where we struggle and find it burdensome to love one another. I don’t only have hardships in my regular family, but also in my extended family. For example, my uncle Victor did not mature as much as the rest of my father’s brothers. He didn’t go to college and has had complications with gambling, and struggles with keeping a steady job. This can relate to Larry Buckman because he was under some of the same circumstances and asked his parents for money.
Babies is a 2010 French film, by Thomas Balmes, that follows four babies from birth to their first steps around the world. Two of the babies are from rural areas: Panijao from Opuwo, Namibia, and Bayarjargal from Bayanchandmani, Mongolia. The other two babies are from urban areas: Mari from Tokyo, Japan, and Hattie from San Francisco, United States. This documentary is different because the whole film is from the babies perceptive. Everything that is shot is at the babies level. There is very little dialogue throughout this film. The focus is not on the parents at all. You will see the parent’s faces through out the film. But mostly all you see is nipples, arms, hands and their chest. You see the parts the baby tends to have the most interest
Both birth and the postpartum period involve a certain degree of danger for the birthing mother, her nascent child, and her entire family or community. Because childbirth is so dangerous (the average lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy related causes is about one in fifteen in some poor countries, MacCormack 1), most cultures have distinct patterns that determine how the birthing process will be carried out. The birthing process involves different birthing positions; different rules concerning who is allowed to be present during the time of birth; mechanisms for deciding where birth takes place; and different ways by which mother and child deal with labor, birth and postpartum. "As a life crisis event, birth is everywhere a candidate for consensual shaping and social regulation the particular pattern depending on local history, ecology, social structure, technological development, and the like" (Jordan 4). By exploring the original human condition of childbirth one is able to gain insight into the universal biosocial phenomenon known as the birthing process.
Sometimes you think you're helping but you're actually hurting them. As I watched these films is saw many example of dignity and basic human rights. Poverty Inc was the only film that really actually caught my eye. It showed me how helping is tearing there business down and we are causing some poverty. We are taking away their basic right by almost shutting down there business, we are also stripping their dignity.
Entertainment can be found in many sources, one of the main sources of entertainment by today is films and television drams. Movies can take viewers to many levels of emotions, such as happiness, sadness, anger and fear. Since the early days film industry was able to invent new ideas as well as convert books in to movies with the time. Which made the movies to genre in to deferent categories such as western, comedy, musical, war, gangster, horror and some popular topics of the time of the movie has made. Since the early stages till today film makers use the sounds effects and used the storylines such as marriage and separation to keep the audience interesting, producers always tried to make the movies which are related to most of the western
Each of the babies could be classified into one of Chess and Thomas’ categories of temperament. First, Ponijao could be considered an easy baby since she is usually in an upbeat mood. She enjoys playing with others, she is curious, and she is happy to explore on her own. An example of this is when she crawls through the mud puddle just because she wanted to. Next, Bayar seems like a slow-to-warm-up baby. He is very tolerant of his surroundings, including his older brother and all the farm animals that live around him. In one scene of the film, a rooster jumps into his bed and walks around, but Bayar does not even seem to care. He is not very active and is content just being alone, and he rarely gets upset but also rarely gets very excited by anything. Finally, both Mari and Hattie seem like difficult babies. Mari seems to cry more often than not. She throws a massive tantrum when she cannot complete the puzzle and cries loudly when she sees a zoo animal. Hattie is less irritable but still presents many challenges to her parents. She seems to dislike any change and desires to be more independent. She tries to feed herself well before other babies try to do the same. During a class with her parents, when they are in the middle of singing a song, she just gets up and walks to the door as if she is ready to leave. Babies presents temperament as influenced mostly by nature, but it is possible that nurture is a
The McDonald’s Corporation, the largest fast food chain in the world, was once known as a carefree place for people to consume a cheap and convenient meal. However, in the last decade, the restaurant has transformed into the main representation of global obesity. In 2004, an expository documentary was released that gave audiences a chance to view the effects of consuming an excessive amount of fast food from McDonald’s. This film, Supersize Me, effectively delivers significant amounts of ‘infotainment’ through commentary and interviews in order to entertain its viewers. Although it is argued that the film is an exaggeration of the traditional American lifestyle, it has caused huge debate within the public sphere and changed the fast food industry forever. The main point of my essay is to argue how even though this documentary is a construction of reality, viewers still respond to it on the faith that it strives to be accurate in the representation of reality.
Babies is a documentary that centers around four diverse infants throughout their first year on Earth. These four babies are born in four different areas of the world. The film demonstrates how people from different parts of the world can grow up completely different than other parts, while still sharing many similarities. Ponijao is an African baby who is born in Opuwo, Namibia. Mari is a young Japanese girl who was born in Tokyo, Japan. Bayar is a baby who was born in Bayanchandmani, Mongolia. The fourth baby’s name is Hattie, born in San Francisco, California. While viewing the documentary, many theories and concepts in psychology are portrayed.
This is a critique of" Roger And Me", a documentary by Michael Moore. This is a film about a city that at one time had a great economy. The working class people lived the American dream. The majority of people in this town worked at the large GM factory. The factory is what gave these people security in their middle working class home life. Life in the city of Flint was good until Roger Smith the CEO of GM decided to close the factory. This destroyed the city. Violent crime became the highest in the nation, businesses went bankrupt, people were evicted from their rented homes. There were no jobs and no opportunity. Life was so bad that Money magazine named Flint the worst place to live in the entire nation. When news of the factory closing first broke, Michael Moore a native of flint decided to search for Roger Smith and bring him to Flint.