Downloads: Press Release
Charged With Neglect, Not Abuse, Do Patrick in Seattle and Hannah in New York City Deserve Second Chances?
A Co-production of ITVS. A Co-presentation with the Center for Asian American Media
“Down-to-earth… ground-level views of struggling, everyday… people.” — Stephen Holden, The New York Times
Tough Love chronicles the separate journeys of Patrick Brown, a single, white father in Seattle, and Hasna “Hannah” Siddique, a newly married Bangladeshi-born mother of two in New York City, as they fight to make their families whole again after their children were taken from them due to neglect. Through intimate, vérité footage, we witness firsthand the complex bureaucracy of America’s child welfare system and the powerful role that poverty and other challenges play in keeping parents and children apart.
Emmy®-nominated filmmaker Stephanie Wang-Breal’s Tough Love has its national broadcast premiere on Monday, July 6, 2015 at 10 p.m. (check local listings) during the 28thseason of PBS’s POV (Point of View). POV is American television’s longest-running independent documentary series and the recipient of a 2013 MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.
It is conservatively estimated that more than 2 million children are in state-sponsored care worldwide. In the United States, more than 400,000 children were living without permanent families in 2013. In 2012, 78 percent of cases reported to child protective services agencies involved findings of neglect, not abuse. Although each state defines neglect differently, allegations often involve poverty, mental illness, addiction, domestic violence and/or children with significant developmental challenges. Among the thought-provoking questions Tough Love raises are these: Do parents charged with neglect deserve a second chance? Who decides? Is there more that can be done to address the factors that contribute to cases of neglect?
Tough Love does not attempt to answer these questions, take sides or set out to show failings in the child welfare system. It simply trains an unflinching eye on the ghosts of the foster care system–the individuals rarely, if ever, depicted in mainstream media–parents who love their children and are struggling to reclaim them. Tough Love is the first documentary to be granted yearlong access to film inside Seattle’s Family Treatment Court (FTC). Never before has the public been privy to the roundtable discussions between social workers and lawyers in the court, and few are aware of the multiple bureaucracies parents must manage and the services that they and their children desperately need to improve their chances of reunification.
We first meet 40-something single dad Patrick Brown in Seattle’s FTC, a court with innovative programs that help parents with histories of substance abuse reunite with their children. Patrick’s 4-year-old daughter, Natalya, has been living with a loving Italian foster family since Patrick, fearing for her life, called Child Protective Services about the child’s meth-addicted mother. After 15 months in the court program, Patrick, a journeyman landscaper, handyman and recovering meth addict himself, is now sober, holding down a steady job and inching closer to being reunited with Natalya. But he slips–gambling away his rent money and drinking a glass of wine after an emotional Fourth of July holiday without his daughter.
Patrick’s team of social workers and advocates, along with Judge Julia Garratt, begin to question his recovery and ability to parent his child safely. As attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous meetings is added to his list of responsibilities, the judge considers terminating his parental rights. Patrick begins to wonder whether he “has what it takes to be a father,” or whether Natalya would be better off being adopted by her foster family.
Meanwhile, across the country in New York City, seven-months pregnant Hannah Siddique and her husband, Philly, are preparing for the birth of their first child. Like any young couple, they seem happy and very much in love. But two years earlier, Hannah’s two children from a relationship with an abusive ex-boyfriend were taken from her after the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) learned that she had left her son and daughter with her mother for nights at a time. Was it poor judgment or neglect? Today, Hannah says that she’s trying to move forward, but “my past is just haunting us.”
Hannah admits that at the time her children were removed from her care, “I was clueless as to what it was to be a mother.” But now she is determined to prove that she can be a responsible parent and that with Philly, she can create a safe and loving home for her children. Philly, a Dominican New Yorker with a sweet, upbeat nature, is with Hannah every step of the way. He works seven days a week in a food truck and at a tile factory, earning barely enough to make ends meet, and all he wants is to be a good husband, father and provider.
Hannah starts to attend weekly parent support group meetings at the Child Welfare Organizing Project (CWOP) in East Harlem. Despite her excitement about having a baby, she is frustrated by the lack of movement on her two-year case with ACS, through which she is seeking to be reunited with her older children. Then, at a CWOP meeting, Hannah and Philly learn a devastating fact: the safety of their newborn child will also be under investigation because of the still-open case.
To make matters worse, the two also discover that living with Philly’s mother, as they do now, is a liability that increases the chances that ACS will take their new baby. With no other options, they apply for a spot in a family homeless shelter. In the midst of all this, healthy baby Mia is born. After failing to qualify for the shelter, Hannah and Philly return to his mother’s house with Mia and hope for the best.
In Seattle, we last left Patrick questioning whether he has what it takes to be a father. But on the heels of the judge’s “tough love” approach, Patrick’s FTC team jumps into action. It’s clear they’re rooting for him and have come to the conclusion that his self-sabotage is grounded in fear and anxiety. Together, with markers and whiteboards and just the right amount of levity, they map out a plan. This time, the scales just might tip in Patrick’s favor.
Tough Love, a compassionate inside look at the child welfare system, shows the remarkable discretion and power that judges have in defining what makes a parent a parent–and a family a family. Put under the microscope of child protective services, which parents would pass the test? The film illustrates the disparity between various state systems and bears witness to the often-overlooked and unappreciated role that social workers, lawyers and parent advocates play as cases drag on for years.
“I hope Tough Love gives audiences a glimpse of the lives inside the child-welfare system, the lives of the families and workers who spend countless hours navigating this complex bureaucracy,” says filmmaker Stephanie Wang-Breal. “At the end of the day, it is a system made of people. People who are faced with complex issues like housing, welfare, domestic violence and substance abuse. People who have to overcome unimaginable obstacles to have a family again.
“Too often, adoption is seen as the only option for children in foster care. Through Hannah, Philly and Patrick’s stories, I hope to show audiences that these children have parents who love them and are willing to do whatever it takes to get them home.”
Tough Love, an Official Selection of the 2014 editions of both the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival, is produced by eyeWANG Pictures.
About the Filmmaker:
Stephanie Wang-Breal, Director/Producer
Stephanie Wang-Breal has been producing and directing films and commercials for the past 11 years. She directed the award-winning documentary Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy, which had its national broadcast premiere on POV in 2010. The film was nominated for an Emmy and won the best U.S. feature award at the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival and best documentary feature at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, as well as a 2011 CINE award. Wang-Breal received the Emerging Director Award at the Asian American International Film Festival for the film. Wang-Breal’s second feature-length documentary, Tough Love, premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in April 2014. Wang-Breal has also directed pieces for Tiffany & Co., Apple, Goldman Sachs, UNICEF, CNN, MTV and most recently an episodic series for Nickelodeon. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. with her husband, 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter.
Credits:
Director: Stephanie Wang-Breal
Executive Producers: POV: Simon Kilmurry, Cynthia López; ITVS: Sally Jo Fifer
Producers: Stephanie Wang-Breal, Carrie Weprin
Co-producer: Ursula Liang
Cinematographers: Nadia Hallgren, Nathan M. Miller
Editors: Colin Nusbaum, Mary Manhardt
Composer: Tyler Strickland
Running Time: 86:46
POV Series Credits:
Executive Producers: Chris White, Simon Kilmurry
Associate Producer: Nicole Tsien
Coordinating Producer: Nikki Heyman
About ITVS
Independent Television Service funds, presents and promotes award-winning documentaries and dramas on public television, innovative new media projects on the Web, and the Emmy® Award-winning weekly series Independent Lens on PBS. Mandated by Congress in 1988 and funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ITVS has brought more than 1,000 independently produced programs to date to American audiences. For more information, visit itvs.org.
About POV
Produced by American Documentary, Inc., POV is public television’s premier showcase for nonfiction films. The series airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on PBS from June to September, with primetime specials during the year. Since 1988, POV has been the home for the world’s boldest contemporary filmmakers, celebrating intriguing personal stories that spark conversation and inspire action. Always an innovator, POV discovers fresh new voices and creates interactive experiences that shine a light on social issues and elevate the art of storytelling. With our documentary broadcasts, original online programming and dynamic community engagement campaigns, we are committed to supporting films that capture the imagination and present diverse perspectives.
POV films have won 32 Emmy® Awards, 18 George Foster Peabody Awards, 12 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards®, the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award and the Prix Italia. The POV series has been honored with a Special News & Documentary Emmy Award for Excellence in Television Documentary Filmmaking, two IDA Awards for Best Continuing Series and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) Award for Corporate Commitment to Diversity. More information is available at www.pbs.org/pov.
POV Community Engagement and Education (www.pbs.org/pov/engage)
POV’s Community Engagement and Education team works with educators, community organizations and PBS stations to present more than 650 free screenings every year. In addition, we distribute free discussion guides and standards-aligned lesson plans for each of our films. With our community partners, we inspire dialogue around the most important social issues of our time.
POV Digital (www.pbs.org/pov/)
Since 1994, POV Digital has driven new storytelling initiatives and interactive production for POV. The department created PBS’s first program website and its first web-based documentary (POV’s Borders) and has won major awards, including a Webby Award (and six nominations) and an Online News Association Award. POV Digital continues to explore the future of independent nonfiction media through its digital productions and the POV Hackathon lab, where media makers and technologists collaborate to reinvent storytelling forms. @povdocs on Twitter.
American Documentary, Inc. (www.amdoc.org/)
American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia company dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.
Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding comes from Nancy Blachman and David desJardins, Bertha Foundation, The Fledgling Fund, Marguerite Casey Foundation, Ettinger Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.
Contacts:
POV Communications: 212-989-7425. Alternate contact: 206-790-8697.
Cathy Fisher, cfisher@pov.org; Brian Geldin bgeldin@pov.org
POV online pressroom: www.pbs.org/pov/pressroom
