When a new baby arrives, so does a bunch of stuff. There’s the stroller, the car seat, the sling, the crib, the bouncy thing, the mobile, the activity mat . . . you know, the things every baby absolutely needs to be raised right and kept amused.
Well, maybe not every infant. Like, say, baby Bayar in Mongolia and wee-thing Ponijao in Namibia, who find the fun, respectively, in tearing apart a roll of tissue paper and banging two rocks together.
Such seemingly mundane yet beautifully simplistic scenarios are featured in “Babies,” a documentary opening Friday from French director Thomas Balmes. It follows the first year of development of four newborns from around the globe: the aforementioned Bayar and Ponijao, as well as Hattie from San Francisco and Mari from Tokyo.
“I was amazed to see Bayar playing with a paper roll for hours and having fun,” says Balmes, who filmed for more than two years, capturing 400 hours of footage. “Babies don’t need that much stuff. They need parents and their time and attention. But also, they need to be left to discover the world by themselves.”
Creating a similar parallel, Balmes made his 80-minute film dialogue- and script-free, allowing audiences the freedom to interpret it as they wish. “I didn’t want the film to impose a point of view or be manipulated by narration,” he says. “I wanted to leave space for the viewer to make his own comment; to think for himself.”
There’s surely a lot to ponder, such as the safety of Bayar, who in one scene was left alone crawling amid cows. Also, the cleanliness of Ponijao, whose mother washes her not with soap and water, but breast milk and red ochre [earth pigment]. Or the determination of Mari, who in a hilarious scene is continually frustrated by not being able to complete a puzzle. And the impatience of Hattie, whose father is left alone in a song circle of kids and parents as she heads for the door.
“It’s really all about relativity,” Balmes says. “Shifting perspectives on how we in the West have a kind of perception that the way we do things is, if not the only way, the best way.”
By simply observing completely contrasting environments, Balmes found the most truthful and shockingly similar conclusion of all: “If you’re patient enough with reality, what you’ll come away with is better than if you were searching,” he says. “Wherever they live, babies grow up happy as long as they are loved, and that is universal.”