The Business of Being Born

            After reading reviews about The Business of Being born, I decided that I did not want to watch it.  I am very easily grossed out by hospital things and especially birth.  However, it seemed extremely interesting and I decided to test my stomach and watch the film anyway.  I am glad that I did.  The documentary was extremely intriguing to me. I had never previously even considered using a midwife.  I had always had an idea in my head of the type of people who use midwives and I had always believed them to be kind of weird. 

            The documentary brings up a lot of important things to consider.  Constantly throughout the documentary we are reminded that the hospital is a business and they want to fill beds and then empty them.  Basically the film suggests that hospitals deliver babies on their watches as opposed to the natural time of birth.  One thing that I was impressed about was that the documentary did not bash hospitals.  There were many times when the film said how important hospitals are for particular types of births.  I agree with these claims.  Hospitals are sometimes necessary but the majority of births would be better if delivered naturally by a midwife.  This is something the filmmaker discovered first hand when she wanted a natural birth and ended up needing a hospital birth. 

            Another important concept that the documentary poses is the importance of the bond with the mother and the child during birth.  The documentary suggests that the bond is stronger in a home, natural birth.  I am not sure how I feel about this claim since I have never had a child.  However, I feel like if I had delivered in a hospital, I would be extremely offended by this claim. I do not think that the bond between mother and child can be measured and one cannot assumed that a natural home birth creates a better connection than a mother who gives birth in a hospital.

            The film is extremely influential.  The documentary sets out to make a movement in the United States back to natural, home births.  The film makes the audience reconsider what we have known to be true or what we have known as the norm our entire life.  The film uses interviews and statistics to make its point.  Although filmmakers can bend reality in their favor, the film does a good job convincing the audience that hospital births is not the only option and realizing this is the purpose of the film. 

Forks Over Knives

Forks Over Knives is definitely a documentary that challenges what we believe to know and gives us questions to ask ourselves.  Many of us, myself included, have grown up believing that animal meat in moderation was an essential part of our diet.  Meat from animals contains “necessary” proteins that we need to be healthy and to have a balanced diet.  I put the word necessary in quotation marks because the whole purpose of the documentary is to convince the viewer that animal meat is not only not necessary but that it also has damaging and long lasting effects on our health.

            People are very biased and opinionated.  It is very difficult to change people’s minds about what they already believe to know.  However, this is one of the main purposes and goals of most documentaries. This film is attempting to be influential and to be able to affect people’s lives in hopefully positive ways.  The filmmakers have good intentions in this film.  Before viewing the film I was discussing it with Jonathon and he was telling me how watching the film would make me probably not want to eat meat anymore.  I told him that probably would not happen and I was right.  But it did make me consider the option of cutting back.

            I would consider myself a fairly healthy person.  I try to eat well and exercise.  But I do not know everything, and this documentary brought up a lot of good questions to consider such as am I really being healthy and how can I prevent potential illness by taking into account the information the filmmaker is giving me.  Although I will continue to eat animal meat, the documentary was very helpful, informative, and positively motivated.  The film made me consider the state of our nation and the many health problems that are associated with it.  It is important to constantly share information to help others and I think this documentary did a really nice job doing this. 

Nobody's Busniess

            The thing that sticks out most to me in the film “Nobody’s Business” is the use of sound.  There are many sound effects that have been added to the film such as ticking and ringing that add an extra “umph” to the film.  Alan Berliner has a very clear idea of how he wanted his film to look.  Whenever there was an argument with his father (and there are many), there is a boxing scene interlaced into the film.  The purpose of the documentary was to talk to his father and to find out information about him, their immediate family, and their extended family.  However, Oscar, his father, is very stubborn and very resistant to many of the questions his son asks him. 

I really like the dynamics between the interviewer and interviewee.  Since the interviewer is the interviewee’s son, the interviewee feels very comfortable and open in showing his unwillingness to answer many of the questions posed by his son.  Alan is pushing extremely hard to open his father up and in a sense stop him from being a Berliner for an hour to really share some information.  Oscar Berliner kept saying that he was no one special and that he had nothing interesting to share and that no one would want to watch the film.  I cannot agree with Oscar Berliner.  I see something special in Oscar, something that Alan, his son, saw as well. 

Oscar was an extremely strong person and I laughed many times throughout the film even though it was not meant to be a comedy.  I was so charmed by how unfriendly and un-charming he was acting.  Many times old people are stubborn and set in their ways and have strong opinions.  While this was frustrating for Alan, I found it almost endearing.  All Alan wants to do is to get his dad to care about what he cares about.  Although Oscar is bitter and stubborn even through the credits, we see glimpses of emotion from Oscar throughout the film.  There are many times when I did not buy Oscar’s grouchy act.  Finding out about the divorce between him and his wife and how he wanted to remain married answers many questions.  Oscar is lonely and his son recognizes this.  As much as Oscar resisted the interview, it made him feel special and like he had a purpose and that he was loved.  Even if the film had gone nowhere, it would have been beneficial for him and his family. But it did go somewhere and people did care, including me, and that is the beautiful thing about documentary.