Babies Documentary Movie Review 2 pages

Babies Documentary
It is always interesting to see how another culture lives. As a person who lives in a modern country, it is hard to fathom living in any other way. You take for granted the modern conveniences all around you. Now, it is more difficult imagining how to raise a baby in an environment unfamiliar to your own. “Babies” does a great job showing this distinction. The best thing the director did was to not narrate; you reach all conclusions through observation. They say a picture is worth a million words, well, a movie must be worth billions. The viewer simply feels and experiences the differences in upbringing.
The movie makes it clear that Ponijao and Bavar are representatives of rural upbringing in a less modern society while Mari and Hattie are being raised in a manner familiar to the majority of the audience. Despite the differences in ethnicity, cultural backgrounds, and different geographical locations, each baby follows a similar pattern of development within the same time frame. Each baby starts off as vulnerable beings completely dependent on their parents for their survival. As the babies go through the familiar pattern of crying, pooping, and laughing, we see the cultural differences in upbringing emerge (Howes, 2010). For example, Bayar’s mother leaves the hospital by bundling her baby and hopping on the back of a motorcycle, in America you can’t even leave the hospital without a car seat for the baby. As the babies develop, we see the different ways babies play according to their environment. Mari and Hattie have playdates, playing in a pristine germ-free environment, their toys are meant to be “thinking games,” and engage in baby yoga. While Ponijao and Bayar, are playing in the dirt, surrounded by animals, interacting with their respective environments.
The purpose of the documentary is to show despite our differences, there is a common thread between people of all backgrounds. At the most basic level, parents love their children and all babies experience the same developmental stages (Copple