Molly Bienstock's post Daddy and Papa

Besides from being a real tear jerker with the adorable babies and courageous parents, Daddy and Poppa was just another family flick.  It had all the components of any other movie about a struggling family living in an oppressive society.  However, this documentary added in seemingly invisible challenges to the family unit that most of us take for granted.  The main family in the film with the baby boy Zachary spoke about everyday tasks that became more like chores with the addition of their son.  Walking in the supermarket felt more like walking through a social experiment, Williams described.  If Zachary would start to cry, a mother would come along and ask where his mother was.  This point about the myth of the maternal instinct seems paradoxical when put in this context.  A woman still feels that women are more caring beings than men, yet this documentary sheds light on how futile that point actually is.
This film also combatted the notion of absent fathers.  The fathers in this film want children and a family more than anything and do so in the most fundamentally loving ways.  African American males are at the bottom of the list for interested adopters and the majority of children adopted in this film are black boys.  As if being outwardly gay wasn't bad enough, the inspiring men in this film also test their situation in some serious race waters.  It was hard for outsiders to understand that Zachary was the child of both Williams and Johnny even though Johnny was white and Williams was biracial.  I felt it was more uncomfortable to watch others being ignorant about Williams and Johnny's situation then it ever was to watch their family unit blossom.  There was nothing uncomfortable about two intelligent, loving, and motivated men who are deeply in love and trying to share that love with a child who really needs it.  The end of the documentary, while it made me totally cry, also made me think about my own family and new families just starting out all over the world.  A family is a safety unit of unconditional love and support and all children deserve to grow up in such an environment.  This documentary proved that fact over and over again with every scene and was emulated in the positive remarks and awards regarding the reactions to this influential film.