This paper reviews the 2010 documentary Babies, directed by Thomas Balmès, which follows four infants — Ponijao, Bayar, Mari, and Hattie — from Namibia, Mongolia, Japan, and the United States respectively. The review examines how the film illustrates universal patterns of infant development across vastly different cultural and environmental settings, drawing on developmental theory to highlight both the similarities and differences in early childhood experience. The author reflects on the documentary's non-narrated format as a deliberate creative choice, argues that the film implicitly critiques over-protective modern parenting, and recommends it as a thoughtful entry point into discussions of culture, child-rearing, and cognitive development.
It is always interesting to see how another culture lives. As a person who lives in a modern country, it is hard to fathom living in any other way — we take for granted the modern conveniences all around us. It becomes even more difficult to imagine raising a baby in an environment unfamiliar to our own. The 2010 documentary Babies, directed by Thomas Balmès, does an excellent job of showing this distinction. The best creative decision the director made was to forgo narration entirely; the viewer reaches all conclusions through observation alone. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words — a film, then, must be worth billions. The viewer simply feels and experiences the differences in upbringing without being told what to think.
This approach aligns with broader discussions in developmental psychology about the role of environment in shaping early childhood experience, and the documentary invites audiences to reflect on those questions through an immersive, unmediated lens.
The film makes clear that Ponijao and Bayar are representatives of rural upbringing in less modernized societies, while Mari and Hattie are being raised in ways familiar to the majority of the film's audience. Despite differences in ethnicity, cultural background, and geographical location, each baby follows a similar pattern of development within the same time frame. Each infant begins as a vulnerable being completely dependent on their parents for survival.
As the babies go through the familiar cycle of crying, laughing, and exploring, the cultural differences in upbringing emerge clearly (Howes, 2010). For example, Bayar's mother leaves the hospital by bundling her baby and riding on the back of a motorcycle — a stark contrast to countries like the United States, where parents cannot leave the hospital without an approved car seat. As the babies develop, we see how differently they play according to their environments. Mari and Hattie have playdates in pristine, carefully managed spaces; their toys are designed as "thinking games," and they participate in activities like baby yoga. Ponijao and Bayar, by contrast, play in the dirt, surrounded by animals, interacting directly with their natural surroundings.
These contrasts reflect longstanding debates in child development research about the influence of environment on early learning and socialization.
"Shared developmental milestones across cultures"
"Viewer takeaways and suggested follow-up study"
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