I Love Babies

I love documentaries and I love babies so how could I not love a documentary about babies.
I’ve been wanting to see this film by Thomas Balmès ever since a friend of mine posted this trailer on my facebook back in 2009

and then when it came out I was a little busy having a baby of my own. I kind of forgot about it until they referenced it in the “All Joy No Fun” article that I blogged about recently. So I finally rented it and watched it with my kids the other day and I really enjoyed it!

It takes an artistic uncensored (literally) look at 4 different babies from 4 different countries from birth to first steps. There are no subtitles, very minimal adults, and no captions whatsoever. All we know is the name and location of these babies. I’ll admit there were times I wish it would have been narrated. I had lots of questions like “why do they not show any Namibia men, where are all the fathers?" "Or Why is that woman squirting milk on her baby?" Overall though too much dialogue or even adult presence would have taken away from the movie which was baby centric. It really let you into their world, the way they would experience it.

I finished the movie with a comforted feeling. These babies were so innocent, no biases, no prejudices. Even though the environments were drastically different they were all alike on so many levels. They all had to learn to eat, talk, and walk and all of these milestones were paralleled in the movie. I also loved the fact that they show the babies in some seemingly threatening circumstances that would make some American parents have a heart attack. These situations would include antagonistic older siblings, pets, dirt and sucking on foreign objects, but the babies were all completely happy and healthy in the midst of it all.

Bayar, the baby from Mongolia was my absolute favorite. I just fell in love with him. One last thing before you go gather around the tv with your entire family when I say the movie was uncensored I mean it! There was plenty of nudity (not just babies), although none of it was glamorized or sensual in anyway, it would make for awkward viewing with some audience so be forewarned.

In short, beautiful shots, heartwarming moments, great movie.