REFLECTIVE ESSAY

Reflective Essay on a Documentary “Growing Up Poor”

Reflective Essay on a Documentary “Growing Up Poor”

Introduction

Documentaries are the best way to enlighten the important issues to the world. They basically focus the significant points that are not discussed yet or need some amendments. In my opinion TV is an effective medium to highlight different issues that are ignored in day to day life. Documentary play a part in enlightening the issues as well as a great source of information to the general public. Four Corners are doing a great job in this sense. I get inspired from the documentary “Growing Up Poor” very much, so I thought to present my reflection on that. The documentary is about the poverty condition in Claymore, an estate in New South Wales, entitled “Growing up Poor”. According to John Grierson (a pioneering Scottish documentary maker who is also considered to be the father of British and Canadian Documentary films), the documentary films are made to portray the features of realities or ways of life. There are a number of types of documentaries, and that is why people have different reasons to watch them. Some people might watch documentaries for gaining knowledge while some just watch for entertainment. I use documentaries as an educational tool because I strive to explore different aspects of lives of the country I am living in.

Discussion

My reflection on Growing Up Poor

This documentary by Sarah Ferguson, Mary Fallon and Greg Wilesmith, beautifully portrayed all the objectives very well. The purpose of this documentary is to highlight the lives of the poor community of the country, and the documenters chose children as their target group as they are the most sensitive population, and impact of poverty can easily be understandable by the views of these innocent creatures, which are sharing their thoughts so nicely and honestly. We have observed from the elder people that what poverty is and how can be minimized, but we rarely listened to the children who are actually experiencing it. Four Corners Team get permitted from children of five families of Claymore to cover their experiences and how they are growing up in poverty. It was shown in this documentary that according to a research, about one among eight Australian citizens are living below the poverty line. A report published by the Australian Council of Social Service found out that more than 2.2 million Australian people are living in poverty, among which more than half a million are children. It is said that the simplest dreams are hardest to come, and it is proven after interviewing with few kids of Claymore. It is more than thirty years that Claymore is created and has become a welfare ghetto. It is housing society with a disturbing history. It is a home to about 3,300 poorest people of the country. Many children in Claymore do not have relationships with one or both of their parents. About half of the Claymore families are a single parent ...