Documentary review- Jenny

"In My Space"

This is an audio slideshow 3:12 long with audio and photos captured from at least three different periods of time. I was interested in this link initially because I've considered offering birthing photography services, either at home or in the hospital.

I like the movement and transition of this piece overall, it goes through an at home visit by a midwife, snapshots of a regular day and then the birth itself. You can hear the baby's heartbeat, along with a photo of  measuring the belly, and the dad placing an ultrasound device on the mom's belly within the first 30 seconds. The midwife introduces herself at :30 and talks about the growing trend of parents taking control of the birthing process by having their children at home instead of in a hospital. At 1:05 she also talks about preparedness for unexpected complications, which adds depth.  The photos used are well composed and help tell the story. The pace keeps up with the interviews and adds context.

The mom then talks about how she didn't like her first experience with an OBGYN during her first son's pregnancy, and during that part of her interview its showing her home, chores, tasks and normal life.  The overall tone was that the mom wanted to enjoy birth in her own space, on the baby's terms. It was interesting and showed a different perspective toward pregnancy than what I'm used to.

I love the establishing shot at 1:53, which shows the family's home in the middle of the night, when labor was in progress. The editor does layer ambient audio with the mother's voice during the photos of labor and baby. But I thought the ambient audio would include screams, or comforting of the husband, of the mother pacing and maybe rythmic breathing. Instead it was subtle noises layered beneath an after the event interview from the mom. I thought that was the point of receiving this glimpse of birthing at home. The photo from 2:08 of the baby being born, with the mother on all fours on her bed made me want to ask a hundred questions about the moments leading up to that moment, especially since I am not familiar with home births and have never seen that position used for hospital births.

I enjoyed it and think the presentation worked well as an audio slideshow.


Changing gears, the second video I watched was "Too Young to Wed: the Secret World of Child Brides."
This video is 10:42 in length, I didn't notice the time pass as I watched it the first time, but the second time I realized, that by the 4 minute marker, most of what will be illustrated or said has already been documented and is just reiterated with another personal story and interview.

It was a very hard video to watch, since my daughter is of marrying age in those cultures. It was emotional and blended stills, audio interviews, b-role, video event coverage, voice over from the journalist and  interviews to create an emotional documentary detailing the life and struggles of cultural rituals, early marriage and poverty. It also uses indigenous music and ambient audio and has the interviewees speaking their native tongue, with a translator overposed on the audio.


I really like how smoothly it transitions between visual mediums throughout the entire piece, at :16 it pans a still photo while beginning an interview, then cuts to a video interview where the girl is showing how her husband covered her mouth during sex, then it cuts again to a still of a girl crying while she talks about crying during the event and how it traumatized her. All this happened within the first 30 seconds of the film.

This is the first documentary I've seen that uses a visually stimulating and creative title page. You need to see it for yourself, it's from :36 to :50.

I cried several times, especially from 1:46 through 2:05, where it shows a smiling little girl, carefree, in video then transitions to stills of her at her wedding ceremony, crying and blank faced.  This video to still transition happens a lot in this film, and I believe it helps pull emotions toward the end goal which is pushing a cause.

It also does something I'm not used to seeing, it uses the journalist's words for VO. Her voice monologues during video and stills, but works to tie everything together and add data to the piece.

One more surprise, which really shocked me, since I'm used to editing myself out of video taken, is from 7:10 to 8:02, The journalist, Stephanie Sinclair's voice is asking a question to a girl interviewee and a translator gives the girls answer, and at the end, Sinclair's hand comes in frame to rub the girl's haajib to comfort her while she cried after answering one of her questions.

It was a long video, but powerful and the way it is edited uses the best of audio, photos and video to convey the story.


Review by Jennifer Ytuarte