In his short documentary Baby Brother, the US filmmaker Kamau Bilal offers a bit of vérité filmmaking at its most refreshing, transforming the mundanity of his younger brother’s return to their parents’ Missouri home into a funny and poignant exploration of the weirdness of young adulthood. Ismaeel is 23 and affable, if somewhat hapless, but the intimacy of his brother’s filmmaking – and presumably his affection for Ismaeel – makes the treatment of the young man’s charms, flaws and idiosyncrasies gently revelatory. His stifled ambitions and uneasiness about the trappings and responsibilities of adulthood echo a distinctly millennial malaise, at the same time as being deeply rooted in his personal experience. This heartfelt and charming short was a favourite on the 2018 film festival circuit, screening at the Sundance Film Festival, True/False and Sheffield Doc/Fest, among many others.
Director: Kamau Bilal
videoLife stages
Grief, healing and laughter coexist at a unique retreat for widows and widowers
15 minutes
videoAnthropology
Margaret Mead explains why the family was entering a brave new world in this 1959 film
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videoFamily life
A mother and child bond in an unusual prison visitation space in this poignant portrait
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Children of the Rwandan genocide face a unique stigma 30 years later
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Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
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The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
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5 minutes
videoFamily life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes