On Wednesday, November 19th, my social justice group and I went to a film at the IFC Center called ‘Tough Love.’ The film is a documentary directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal, focusing on two parents in the midst of the Child Welfare System, Hannah from New York City, and Patrick from Seattle, who had
been separated from their children by the state. Somehow, the film got exclusive access inside the child welfare courts, to ultimately capture a close-to-home, firsthand account of these parents’ struggles as they confront their past mistakes and attempt to prove to the system that they deserve a second chance to be parents. An interesting thing about the film is that we also hear from the foster parents taking care of these children, and their opinions on the parent and whether or not they should once again be allowed custody of their child.
After the film, there was a quick question-and-answer session with the director. Sadly, I wasn’t able to attend, however I was able to listen to a recording. Most of the questions revolved around the making of the film, how did they find the families starring in the film, how did the children feel when they were being filmed, etc., but there is one question that I still really would like the answer to. That question is: why? Why did she decide to make this film and was it hard at times to watch these willing parents crack under the pressure of possibly never having their child live with them again? Because even though this movie sends a primarily positive message about second chances and hoping for a better life, there are many emotional parts of it where it’s somewhat hard to watch.
Overall, I think the movie was a really great experience, and I think it brought us a lot of knowledge on the other end of the Child Abuse scale. It will also give us a chance to bring some positivity into our teach-in. Learning about things
through real cases and watching it on a screen is actually, as we found out, a really good way to absorb information. We hope to see more films about our topic soon!
Tough Love Film: http://www.toughlovefilm.com
