Tag Archives: family demographics

Families in Society, Family Resource Management, Internal Dynamics of Families, Parenting

Pursuit of Happyness

Title: Pursuit of Happyness

Date: 2006

Media type: Film

Format: Clip

Category: Families in Society, Internal Dynamics of Families, Family Resource Management, Parenting

Keywords: work and family, family demographics, response to crises, decision-making, financial management, parent-child relationships

Rating: PG-13

Audience(s): High School Age, College Age, Adults, Parents

Language: English

Film/Episode Summary: Chris Gardner is a down on his luck guy who ends up losing his livelihood, home, money, and wife and lives on the streets with his son. The movie follows his attempt to get steady work and sell a bone-density scanner he has helped create. The story focuses on Chris Gardner’s work ethic and drive to make a better life for him and his son.

Clip Description: In this scene Chris Gardner has been brought into jail on unpaid parking tickets. He has barely enough to pay his tickets, but as he only has a check he ends up having to wait the night in jail so they can clear the check before they release him. As he is unable to leave he has to call someone to watch his son against his instincts. In addition to having to find care for his son he also has a job interview in the morning for a good job but is in work clothes that are covered in paint.

Comments or Recommendations for Teaching: What role does keeping Gardner in jail do to his life? How, if at all, does imprisoning someone for minor charges help the individual, the city, or the police department? Do you think this scene speak to the cycle of incarceration and poverty?

Places to view: Youtube, Amazon Video, Vudu, Google Play, Itunes, Crackle

Contributor: Ian Brunzell-Looney

Families in Society, Family Resource Management, Internal Dynamics of Families

The Queen of Versailles

Title: The Queen of Versailles

Date: 2012

Media type: Documentary

Category: Families in Society, Internal Dynamics of Families, Family Resource Management

Keywords: work and family, family demographics, response to crises, financial management

Rating: PG

Audience(s): High School Age, College Age, Adults

Language: English

Film/Episode Summary: This documentary follows a once extravigantly wealthy family that has lost the lifestyle they could once afford. It focuses on the dynamic changes as the family has to live with less and less. The father and husband works constantly to try and salvage as much as he can from his once booming time-share business at the expense of time with his wife and children, not that he was very involved before they lost money though. The family struggles to understand the world that they have to start living in, a simpler and less entitled one.

Comments or Recommendations for Teaching: What roles does wealth play in the family system in this documentary? What do you think these individuals are struggling with the most? How can you relate to them and their situation? What role does the father’s job and business play in the individual family members’ lives? What about in the family system?

Places to view: Amazon Video, Vudu, Itunes, Hulu, Netflix

Contributor: Ian Brunzell-Looney

Families in Society, Health and Human Sexuality, Internal Dynamics of Families

Ballast

Title: Ballast

Date: 2008

Media type: Movie

Category: Families in Society, Internal Dynamics of Families, Human Sexuality and Health

Keywords: family demographics, stress and coping, conflict management, substance abuse

Rating: NR (R)

Audience(s): College Age, Adults

Language: English

Film/Episode Summary: The story of a group of people connected by familial relationships and the small impoverished town they live in try and find a way through all of the hardship. When Lawrence’s brother commits suicide Lawrence is unable to cope and attempt to kill himself. As he recovers Lawrence is unable to return to working at the store he owned with his now deceased brother. Lawrence’s son James who is in his early teens attempts to rob Lawrence to pay drug dealers that he and his mother owe. They are unable to pay and their home is shot up in a drive by, when James’ mother loses her job Lawrence helps by buying them food and giving them a place to stay. Lawrence gives James’ mother a job in his store and the 3 become a sort of family unit, united by their shared hard experiences. This movie deals with drug abuse, mental illness, poverty and homelessness, violence, and unemployment that face many Americans today who live in the poorest areas where opportunities are scarce and crime is high.

Comments or Recommendations for Teaching: What major societal factors are prevalent in this movie? What roll does the isolation captured in the cinematography play in how mental illness isolates individuals? As the 3 main characters form a sort of family unit the movie leaves us thinking that they have come to a better place than where they started, what does this say about the mitigating facts of kinship on corrosive societal pressures?

Places to view: Itunes

Contributor: Ian Brunzell-Looney