Big Screen Peter: Babies

Editor’s note: Peter Lewis has agreed to use whatever it is you call his writing style to provide some measure of analysis to those folks who still go to a theater to see a movie. Enjoy.

review by Peter Lewis

Infants are an easy sell. We are seemingly programmed to be attracted to footage of babies, no matter what species.

Check YouTube. There are countless clips of cute puppies and monkeys and giraffes and everything else under the sun. They are a reassuring subject. One seemingly ripe for the big screen.

“Babies,” a new documentary from Thomas Balmes, makes this leap to the big screen. It’s a feel good movie that, if nothing else, can certainly refresh one’s hope in humanity. And really, how could even the most frosty of reviewers walk away with anything short a silly grin after spending an hour watching footage of four babies from across the world? Fortunately, the film has much grander aims than putting smiles on the faces of the audience.

Balmes’ film follows four new born children over the course of about a year in four very different locales. There is Hattie in San Francisco, Mari in Tokyo,  Ponijao in Namibia, and Bayarjargal in Mongolia. Each is very much the focal point of the film. Actions and dialogue of others (parents, relatives, etc) are more than secondary. They occur, but the camera never wavers from its focus: the child’s experience.

From the pampered and cluttered lives of the more affluent families in Tokyo and San Francisco to the powerful austerity of Mongolia and the impoverishment of life in Namibia, these experiences are pointedly diverse. Balmes expertly showcases these differences with seeming ease. There is no dialogue; the film rests solely upon the footage. And that footage is a pointedly compelling.

The life of Bayarjargal’s family in Mongolia is one of sweeping  pastoralism, a hardscrabble existence that in many ways hearkens back to a pre-industrial existence. The scope of the life is perfectly captured. We see the curious Bayarjargal tottering around goats as the expanse of the Mongolian stepped unfolds behind him.

This is in stark contrast to Mari and Hattie. While Bayarjargal and Ponijao are so often left alone to entertain themselves or play with siblings, Mari and Hattie are almost constantly doted upon or entertained. With parent-child yoga sessions and earth loving sing-a-longs, Hattie and Mari’s parents seem desperate to create perfection, to give their kids that sought for “head start” on life.

“Babies” illustrates the alterations affluence has had on child rearing. In more developed countries, the focus has switched from ensuring a child’s survival to ensuring that they thrive amongst their peers. It is here that the focus of Babies is so keenly apropos. The film seems to implicitly question the validity of the modern parenting structure and in focusing on such a small sample, they seem to have lost opportunities for the exploration of this subject.

Granted, widening the scope of the film would have negatively affected the pacing and thus lessened the impact of the film. However, a middle ground could have been reached by highlighting a child in a rural part of America or other developed nation. As is, with rural depictions in less-developed nations like Namibia and Mongolia with urban portrayals in Tokyo and San Francisco, the possible insight is quite limited to very particular subsets of the population. While there are countless differences between Mari and Hattie, the fact remains that the similarities were all to obvious and quite equally multitudinous.

Of course, this is a passing complaint. With the breathtaking cinematography and the incomparable footage of the children, the film is quite an achievement. As the film comes to a close, the audience is left both with a realization of how different life can be and a deep appreciation for the unifying nature of living, no matter where one was born. It is certainly a film for all.

• Babies is playing at the Malco Cinema 12 in Fort Smith. Link here for time and ticket info.

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