Thomas Balmes observed four babies from four different cultures and followed them, from moments before birth up to their first steps. One thing that he has done differently is he didn’t focus on the verbal communication that went on. In fact, throughout the documentary any time there was verbal communication he seemed to place just the right music, slightly louder, so the viewer didn’t concentrate on that. I am not trying to say that verbal communication isn’t important in raising children, but we can learn so much more from just watching all the non-verbal communication. In one of his interviews he was asked about there being no commentary and his response was “I don't want to be too obvious about what I am showing. I want everyone to find their own message in the film. You should trust the viewer to watch t I don't want to be too obvious about what I am showing. I want everyone to find their own message in the film. You should trust the viewer to watch the footage and just dive into that and be taken. When the footage is strong enough you don't need commentary.” (1) When I first watched the documentary I couldn’t believe some of the things I saw. The things that I was taught growing up made me cringe at some of the scenes at first, but then I had to remember that every culture is different, that this is the way that they were raised. I found myself watching Babies several times, each time feeling such a strong emotion that still to this day is hard to describe. I feel that Thomas did this through cutting out most of the verbal communication. Thomas had 400 hours of film (2) that he narrowed down to 80 minutes of emotionally, triggering, life experience that each person in the audience could walk away feeling and learning something different. This is a documentary that everyone should watch. It is one, that if you were to put 50 people that each spoke their own language, all would be able to understand and pull something meaningful from it. I have listed a link below that gives you some more details about not only the movie, but also a little about each family.
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