Bree'sFilmAnnotation5

Bree Mobley, Annotation #5 “Mother: Caring for 7 Billion” 14 October 2011 1229 words

“Mother: Caring for 7 Billion”, directed by Christophe Fauchere, released in 2011

“Mother” is a documentary highlighting what many people have forgotten about when it comes to sustainability problems: population growth. This single factor is the base contributor to every single other sustainability problem: environmental, humanitarian, social, etc. However, discussing the issue of population and the possible cut back of human reproduction is a sensitive matter, uprooting topics such as religion, economics, family planning, and gender equality. “Mother” illustrates its message through statistics and numbers, relating past population trends to current populations trends. It compares developing country populations to developed country populations and the contraceptive efforts of both. Through interviews with experts on the subject, people who have researched the growing population trend and its causes, those who have written books on it, leaders of national awareness campaigns, and professors, “Mother” successfully paints a picture of the problem of population and the possible solution. The film also shows a handful of interviews preformed at a recent Earth Day celebration asking people general knowledge questions about population growth and its effects. The lack of knowledge revealed by the answers shows that most people are aware of a population issue, but don’t necessarily care enough to learn actual facts about it or to attempt to reverse it in any way. In addition, by using statistical facts, the film drives home the point that population has experienced major increases, exponential increases, in the last century and will continue to rise unless the current generation does something about it. One example I found particularly relevant was that, in the developing countries like the United States, each year the middle class grows by 50 million people. The film has incredible emotional appeal as well because it is tampering with a divine human ability: the right to reproduce, to create another human. Reproduction is so closely tied with things people hold so near: family, religion, culture, heritage, lineage, love, relationships, and acceptance. Things ranging from the most basic human desires to constraints applied by societal norms. This film draws out Behavioral, Cultural, Educational, Media and Informational sustainability problems. “Mother” talks about the current population crisis occurring in developing countries, such as Ethiopia. In the film, an American mother of three, two of her own and one adopted, travels to Ethiopia on behalf of the film to explore the subject of population there. In developing countries, the issue that needs to be addressed is the role of the female. The film defends that overpopulations is a symptom of a “domination system” that has glorified the domination of man over woman, a system that is widely prominent in developing countries. This system and attitude is most likely due to lack of education and resourced provided to young girls and women. The film suggests raising the status of females worldwide to solve this. The part of “Mother” I found most compelling was when the film explored the life of a young female living in Ethiopia. It allowed the audience to see where she lived, who her family was, where she went to school and work. She spoke very openly about her opinion on population growth; her opinion mirrored the opinion of the film. She said that her mother had no access to birth control early in her reproducing and that when she did finally visit a doctor about contraceptive choices, her husband had not supported or believed it could be effective. The young woman also talked about her younger sister had died of AIDS not long after giving birth to a baby girl. This pregnancy and death had greatly affected her, she said. The young woman revealed that most of the information she had received on marriage choice and contraception was due to a soap-opera talk show that talked about population and reproduction issues. She showed the program to her mother and father who then also realized the seriousness of overpopulation. The film visited the talk show recording studio and spoke with people there about their message and its importance and effect on Ethiopia’s female population. The effect was only positive. The part of the film I found least compelling was how the woman who was sponsored by the film to visit Ethiopia on behalf of herself and the organization for mothers she had founded had not spread the word of population regulation to her immediate family. At the end of the film, she mentions that although her and her husband made the conscious choice to only have two children and to adopt a third, the rest of her siblings had not. They proceeded to reproduce in the more socially and culturally accepted way, creating families of three or four children. Now I realize that imposing her belief on her siblings might have not been possible, but I feel that information could have been left out of the film. Or maybe it was good that it was included. But either way, it was a dissatisfying realization at the end of the film. This film aims to address young woman, not only in developing countries, but in developed countries as well. The education of woman everywhere should be rising if we intend to seriously take on this population crisis. I think it is also intended to affect men who continue to marry young, encourage large families without family planning, and refuse to practice safe birth control. I think that to enhance the environmental educational value of this film, a detailed story of a female in a completely different environment could have been provided. I felt strongly for the young female in Ethiopia’s life and lifestyle choices based on her knowledge of the female role and overpopulation. It would have improved the quality of the film to evoke that same emotion from a different situation. Also to provide more environmental impacts overpopulation has. The film did a nice job highlighting consumerism and the effects of overpopulation of our fossil fuel reserves, but little to showcase the environmental damage overpopulation is causing. The film does suggest positive ways to improve the problem of overpopulations. It puts the responsibility on the young, almost to reproductive stage, generation. The film says that we (I’m including myself in this generation) have the choice to level off the growth of population or to have it continue to skyrocket. By educating young woman and spreading the word about contraception, in addition to empowering woman to think and act freely, we can begin to level off the exponential curve of population growth. More information that I chose to research upon seeing this film are listed below. I researched the film’s website and found its facebook fan page. The website gives links and suggestions on how to take action in your community in addition to providing more information on the matter and deeper understanding of the movie and its resources. I also chose to look up the different birth control options that all females should have access to. Even though the film highlighted a developing country, education about birth control is also very important in first world countries like the United States. // Trailer | Motherthefilm.com //. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. . "Birth Control Methods - Birth Control Options." // Sexual & Reproductive Health - Sex Education - Planned Parenthood //. Planned Parenthood. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. .