All the Invisible Children

All the Invisible Children (2005) is a collection of shorts directed by 7 different directors about childhood problems.

Song Song and Little Cat (2005) was directed by John Woo

This was a really beautiful story about two little girls in China and how their lives parallel one another somehow.  The story is about how easily anyone can effect your life without even being a real part of it. This film actually brought me to tears because of the girl’s grandfather.  It’s also unbelievably disheartening about how children are so easily orphaned without any choice and how children who appear to have everything, have just about nothing because of unhappiness and every child deserves to be happy.  This film was amazing and impossible to not get emotionally involved and feel the pain of both children, who lead completely different lives but feel similar pain.  I’m happy that the mother didn’t drive off the cliff, too. But even if the rich little girl almost had a second where her life was at risk, the poor girl is always going through that but still somehow remains optimistic.  Both girls maintain a level of optimism which is outstanding, it’s almost as if they both have each other without being aware of it.  And once they meet, it makes both of their days and lives seem better.  I also liked the tie in of how the grandfather found the doll in the same place that he found the baby girl.  All girls are dolls, whether they come from a broken home or don’t have a real home.  This was hands down one of my favourite films that we’ve watched in class

Jesus Children of America (2005) directed by Spike Lee.

This film was a more familiar story, not personally, but in the sense that it does take place in America and sparks issues that I think our culture is aware of but sometimes, for lack of a better word, ignores.  It’s much worse for children, as we saw in Song Song and Little Cat, but the location of this film and dialogue was a lot more recognizable.  It doesn’t make it any more sad, though.  This collection of shorts are really heart-wrenching and eye-opening, which is unfortunate because there are a lot of cases like these where children are invisible and it’s almost irreparable.  These are issues that there should be films about, even if they have to be short to become louder and help the issues come more at hand.  My first reaction to this film was about the relationships between parents and their children that are in those situations and how sometimes it’s like the child has to be the parent because there isn’t much the parent can do to take care of them.  The ending of the film wasn’t anything that I was expecting and it made me feel worse for the girl as she clearly had no friends or any sort of escape from her homelife.