About the time "interviewee" Debra Baker--a 50-year-old woman who was pressured into a) entering a home for unwed mothers when she became pregnant in 1967 at the age of 18, and b) giving up her baby in a closed adoption--pleas to the camera "what mother doesn't want to keep her baby?", I strongly suspected what the video doesn't reveal until the end credits: namely that, although the program is presented as an objective look at a web of complex issues, it's really the personal story of "producer" Debra Baker. Without belittling Baker's anguish (which is unquestionably genuine), Broken Ties really boils down to an unresolved family mess, with the principals stuck in a frozen tableau like a Greek chorus condemned to repeat the same lines: Debra (who harbors bitter feelings and hopes to one day find her son), her sister (who commiserates), and her mother (who was only doing what society demanded at the time, but now realizes it was the wrong decision). While I couldn't help but feel for Baker's dilemma (call the story typical, if you will, the human being addressing the camera still makes it personal and real), I also had to wonder if this issue might not be better resolved in family discussions than here, especially since on those few occasions when Baker or her relations choose to speak beyond their particular situation, their pronouncements strike the viewer as greatly oversimplified or just plain false (in the real world, unfortunately, there are mothers and fathers who don't want to keep their babies). Not a necessary purchase. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)
Broken Ties
(1999) 27 min. $175. UC Extension Media. PPR. Vol. 15, Issue 6
Broken Ties
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