first steps between trauma and rebirth

by time news

2023-11-15 22:00:06
“Tata Simone” and Basile in the documentary “Focused babies, life ahead of them”, by Karine Dusfour. 416 PROD

FRANCE 2 – WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15 AT 11 P.M. – DOCUMENTARY

Position yourself at child height, newborn height. This is the bias of journalist Karine Dusfour with her new documentary, produced by Mélissa Theuriau for the magazine “Infrarouge”. For several months, its camera followed three babies entrusted to the Val-de-Marne foster care service, which welcomes toddlers for a few weeks to a few months, before being directed to a family or another place of care. In France, around 10,000 babies are cared for in nurseries.

We thus discover Basile, born under X, in the maternity ward where he was born a week earlier; Anne-Lise, whose mother, unable to take care of her properly, entrusted her to child welfare at the age of one; Marion, 4 months old, also born under X. Three toddlers whose blurred faces in no way detract from the emotion that their traumatic family history provokes in the viewer.

With grace, Karine Dusfour films the first steps in the lives of these foster children who, in their misfortune, are lucky enough to find a myriad of good fairies along their path. These are the “tatas” (the nickname given to family assistants), childcare assistants and other social workers from the child protection service of Sucy-en-Brie (Val-de-Marne), including commitment commands admiration. Their goal: to restore these toddlers’ trust in adults.

A very feminine world

There is, for example, “Auntie Simone”, who welcomes Basile into her home until his adoption, at two and a half months. But also Catherine, childcare assistant at the nursery, who takes care of Anne-Lise from her arrival in tears one evening until she leaves for a foster family where she will find her brother. And all the rest of the team of this model service – a very feminine world – that we discover during meetings, where situations are weighed, examined with a single compass, that of the best interests of the children in their care. entrusted.

Very delicate, this luminous film goes against the shock reports on the failures of child protection. Not that its director, with a marked interest in these subjects (she had notably documented the daily life of children’s judge Edouard Durand in My lips are sealed, broadcast in 2020), ignores them. But by filming the beneficial and visible effects on babies of this social work imbued with good treatment, she underlines the ingredients which make it successful: a trained, stable team, in exchange and reflection.

Read the review: “Forbidden Zone” highlights failings in child protection

An example to follow ? During a screening organized at the Ministry of Health, Tuesday November 7, attended by the Secretary of State for Children, Charlotte Caubel, and parliamentarians, Karine Dusfour expressed the wish that “this documentary serves to encourage vocations and pushes the State and departments to devote more resources to these professions”.

Placed babies, life ahead of them, documentary by Karine Dusfour (Fr., 2023, 60 min). Broadcast as part of the show “Infrarouge”, on France 2.

#steps #trauma #rebirth

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