Documentary reflection

The filmmakers presented the majority of their research in a way that was intended to appeal to the audience’s pathos. They followed the lives of several families from all over the United States to show that the problem is widespread. We got to see where and how they lived as well as hear firsthand from the parents and kids about their struggles with food insecurity. They showed the hunger problems and health problems associated with it by having children speak and be shown at the doctor’s office. This all pulls of the viewer’s emotions and made the video more relatable and impactful. They also presented facts very clearly. When they had a statistic, it would be put up of the screen in big letters and be made the focus at that time. They also used visuals like graphs and charts. One example I found pretty impactful was when they showed the rise in food insecurity throughout the terms of the different presidents. They would show video of the presidents speaking about wanting to help the problem but at the bottom of the screen show the number of insecure people in America rising by the millions. They used interviews with people to back up the claims and fact that they had just presented. One part I found very effective was when they were following this woman with two kids who was on food stamps. She finally got a job and was so happy to have one but because of that, she lost her food assistance. She had to struggle and worry about feeding her kids more when she had a job than when she was on food stamps. Also, they really did a good job at showing that obesity and food security go hand in hand. They used children and really good visuals to show that the cheap things to ge with little money are the very unhealthy, processed foods. They even interviewed a person that works for food assistance that tried to live off of a food stamp budget. He only could make it one week because he couldn’t buy healthy things of get enough food to last him the week. Overall, I believe that this film did a really good job of presenting their ideas and backing it up with first hand interviews and visuals the appeal to the audience emotions.