Documentary, parenting and belonging

How do depictions of care for children – or parenting – reinforce or challenge ideas of who belongs?

This was the question posed by my research (Masters, University of Melbourne). I looked at representations of care for children (parenting) in ABC documentary productions Jihad Sheilas, Katherine, NT and Intervention: Stories From The Inside. The prominent focus on Muslim and Aboriginal parents in these Australian documentaries aimed to examine how depictions of the parent’s care for the child intersect with notions of national belonging.

Based on these examples, my research found that the genre of documentary films can both be complicit with racist and objectifying practices, but also important in rebutting and challenging these. Find it here