BlackStar Film Festival Review: “Through the Night” Wants to Make Childcare Accessible for Everyone
Due to the pandemic, Americans are taking a closer look at the systematic problems that plague the nation. One of these significant problems includes the lack of affordable child care for working parents. According to a recent report from the Learning Policy Institute, 336,000 child care providers have lost their job between March and April, leaving thousands of childcare centers and homes at risk of closing. With the loss of these facilities, many families of all economic stripes have to juggle their children, jobs, and personal lives with little to no support from the government. Though these numbers are bleak, people like Afro-Latina filmmaker Loira Limbal are doing their part to highlight the importance of investing in childcare.
Filmed before the pandemic, Through the Night is an observational documentary that follows the story of a child care worker and two working mothers as they navigate the ever-brutal economy at a 24 hrs daycare center in New Rochelle, New York. The film opens at Dee's Tot's Childcare. Long-term childcare providers Delores "Nunu" Hogan and her husband Patrick "Pop Pop" Hogan tend to the children as their parents take off for work late at night. Kind, nurturing, and compassionate, the matriarch of sorts does it all with little time for herself or her family. As a caregiver, Nunu cooks the children's dinner, combs their hair, reads to them before they go to bed, hosts movie nights, puts away their toys, and even wipes away their tears.
A real godsend, Nunu gives parents the support they need as they navigate an economy that demands so much out of them but returns so little. These parents include working mothers Shanona Tate and Marisol Valencia. One a registered nurse and the other a service worker with three parttime jobs, these women have to choose between paying their bills or raising their children. And although Nunu and her small team of caregivers are available to assist these overworked parents in need, the middle-aged women's health is waning, and she may not be able to help these parents much longer.
The film brilliantly shows how the current economy affects people through its subject, Nunu. She proves that it takes a village to raise a child. Along with taking care of the children at the daycare center, Nunu becomes a sounding board for her stressed-out clients. She listens to their concerns, offers them advice when they're on the job hunt, and ensures that their children are well cared for as they work the night shift. Without Nunu and her loving husband, these parents may not have the ability to work while raising their young children at the same time. And although these parents do not want to leave their children with the caregiver, they know giving their children up to Nunu is the only way to survive.
But after working for 22 years, Nunu's work as a child care provider has become emotionally and physically draining. As well as suffering severe health problems, Nunu does not have the time nor mental capacity to give her husband and children the attention they deserve. The caregiver wishes to spend more time with her family, but she knows her clients need her. It is as if the economy forces everyone to choose the grind over their personal needs.
Though the documentary covers weighty issues, director Limbal brings a gentle, if not, human touch to Through the Night. Instead of using talking heads from professionals who work or specialize in childcare, the filmmaker lets the Hogans, their clients, and the daycare facility's children tell the story. Like a tiny fly buzzing nearby, the camera follows these people as they try to add some form of stability to their lives. We see Nunu hosting a movie night for the children, Valencia going to a job interview, Pop Pop helping his wife with the daycare's garden, and Tate talking to her children on the phone while at the hospital. While these scenes are small scale in manner, they show how connected and fragile our economy, childcare, and jobs are. In some ways, these scenes reflect a system take makes it hard to be a parent in America. And If one piece of the system slips off, the whole system falls apart – just as it is happening during the pandemic.
And though the director does an excellent job of showing the ins and outs of a 24-hour daycare center, she needs to show the working parents' interior lives a bit more. We get a pretty good idea about who Nunu and her husband are as human beings, but we barely know anything about Tate and Valencia. A few more scenes that reflect these incredible mothers' backstories might help emphasize how much childcare (and the lack of childcare) is vital to them.
That said, Through the Night is a documentary that is worth watching. With its engaging subjects and humane approach to filmmaking, Limbal shows why childcare needs to be accessible for all Americans. Because right now, our current economic system is not working for everyone. Exhausted parents struggle juggling multiple part-time jobs, children barely get time to spend with their folks, and daycare providers work long hours to meet their client's needs. But if the United States government gets their head out of the sand and help families raise their children for once, perhaps people like Nunu do not have to risk her health to run a 24-hour daycare center.
Through the Night is more than a film. It is a campaign for social change. Click here to learn how Limbal and her crew are working to improve the quality of mothers and caregivers.
Poster And Trailer By Through the Night
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