Post by sisyphus on Jun 1, 2006 5:04:45 GMT -5
I thought there ought to be a separate thread for documentary movies. They're a genre apart, so here goes:
I just watched Children Underground. It's about the condition/lives of street children in Romania.
The blurb on the netflix packet says this:
"When Romanian dictator Nicolei Ceaucescu outlawed the use of contraceptives and encouraged his subjects to have more children in a bid to increase his nation's population, his campaign had a terrible and dangerous side effect -- thousands of children were born to broken or dysfunctional families in a nation mired in political and economic instability, resulting...."
The majority of these street children have become addicted to sniffing paint from bags as a means of escaping hunger and cold. The docu focused on a handful of particular children that lived primarily at a subway stop (victory plaza, it would seem to translate as). They were followed for several years. One girl, Christina, has done her best to pretend to be a boy throughout her entire childhood, so she'd be safer. She tries to speak in a low male voice, and has even become quite agressive. She always talked in a kill-or-be-killed sort of manner, and about how she would use violence/agression/fear to earn respect. She betrayed some more nurturing qualities in the way she kind of looked out for all the smaller children making there home in this subway station. At the end of the documentary it seemed that a couple of children, after going through some ridiculous hardships and nearly losing their lives several times, had some hope of recovering and promising futures. On the flipside, a few were still stuck in terrible situations. One girl who was particularly addicted to the paint, and who had never even known her parents, betrayed some pretty poignant desperation in the closing interview. She had constructed a myth for herself. She told the camera that she has parents, but that they live in another country. They love and want her back she says. They have plenty to eat, and a car. They have another daughter, who is her twin, she affirms. This twin lives the life that this street girl creates for herself in her paint fume dreams. She is so lonely. And these kids are smart....perceptive...hardworking...so many things. But they're desperate. They cut themselves.
Some social workers attempted to reunite some of the children with their parents. When the parents were interviewed, they were either very defensive or ridiculously confident. In both instances, they betrayed a lot of their "parenting mistakes," to say the least. These parents are so frustrated...unable to cope with the economic hardship... drinking ensues....children run...such a cycle.
The most painful thing was to watch the children interact. Sort of reminded me of Lord of the Flies as they would struggle to set up their gangs and establish dominance and systems of organization. Children are so honest and direct about what it is they're feeling. Why they're jealous, angry, unhappy. They demonstrated so many basic human emotions that we all share. So many similar aspirations. Yet their situations are so tough..constantly being beaten and beaten down. sigh.
If you have not gotten the picture already, it was a really hard docu to watch. I get the picture that a lot of the same stuff is happening in other parts of Eastern Europe. I saw it a bit in the poorer parts of Moravia, like the city of Ostrava in Czech Republic. There is also a strong and disturbing line between whites and "gypsys." Pretty complicated issues.
I just watched Children Underground. It's about the condition/lives of street children in Romania.
The blurb on the netflix packet says this:
"When Romanian dictator Nicolei Ceaucescu outlawed the use of contraceptives and encouraged his subjects to have more children in a bid to increase his nation's population, his campaign had a terrible and dangerous side effect -- thousands of children were born to broken or dysfunctional families in a nation mired in political and economic instability, resulting...."
The majority of these street children have become addicted to sniffing paint from bags as a means of escaping hunger and cold. The docu focused on a handful of particular children that lived primarily at a subway stop (victory plaza, it would seem to translate as). They were followed for several years. One girl, Christina, has done her best to pretend to be a boy throughout her entire childhood, so she'd be safer. She tries to speak in a low male voice, and has even become quite agressive. She always talked in a kill-or-be-killed sort of manner, and about how she would use violence/agression/fear to earn respect. She betrayed some more nurturing qualities in the way she kind of looked out for all the smaller children making there home in this subway station. At the end of the documentary it seemed that a couple of children, after going through some ridiculous hardships and nearly losing their lives several times, had some hope of recovering and promising futures. On the flipside, a few were still stuck in terrible situations. One girl who was particularly addicted to the paint, and who had never even known her parents, betrayed some pretty poignant desperation in the closing interview. She had constructed a myth for herself. She told the camera that she has parents, but that they live in another country. They love and want her back she says. They have plenty to eat, and a car. They have another daughter, who is her twin, she affirms. This twin lives the life that this street girl creates for herself in her paint fume dreams. She is so lonely. And these kids are smart....perceptive...hardworking...so many things. But they're desperate. They cut themselves.
Some social workers attempted to reunite some of the children with their parents. When the parents were interviewed, they were either very defensive or ridiculously confident. In both instances, they betrayed a lot of their "parenting mistakes," to say the least. These parents are so frustrated...unable to cope with the economic hardship... drinking ensues....children run...such a cycle.
The most painful thing was to watch the children interact. Sort of reminded me of Lord of the Flies as they would struggle to set up their gangs and establish dominance and systems of organization. Children are so honest and direct about what it is they're feeling. Why they're jealous, angry, unhappy. They demonstrated so many basic human emotions that we all share. So many similar aspirations. Yet their situations are so tough..constantly being beaten and beaten down. sigh.
If you have not gotten the picture already, it was a really hard docu to watch. I get the picture that a lot of the same stuff is happening in other parts of Eastern Europe. I saw it a bit in the poorer parts of Moravia, like the city of Ostrava in Czech Republic. There is also a strong and disturbing line between whites and "gypsys." Pretty complicated issues.
