The monsters of my house is a 60-minute documentary produced by Quindrop that "shows an uncomfortable and shocking reality", which the viewer is not accustomed to watching. And this is because the physical and emotional abuse, sexual abuse or neglect by their parents or people in their closest field.
It was produced in 2010, and in fact it is since then that I know him. Now that I've seen it again, several moments have caught my attention. I would like to mention the moment when Noemí Pereda (psychologist) remarks that 'the family is protective, but when it is not, it becomes the most risky situation for children'. The protagonist of this documentary is Carmen Artero (who I will talk about later) and mentions that 'sometimes violence is silenced as part of everyday life'
The documentary
The monsters of my house from Quindrop on Vimeo.
The monsters of my house goes from the particular, the case of each child, to the universal, the shame of society, going through the daily work of people who try to reveal this reality or who, with their action, manage to save the lives of children who find themselves in a situation of unprotection.
We show the viewer an uncomfortable reality that he is not accustomed to seeing and that, being within the scope of private and everyday life, is even more shocking
The goal of My House Monsters is to show that Within the essence of the human being there are also such cruel tendencies as those that lead parents to abuse, mistreat or be negligent with their own children. The criticism is not only those parents, it is society, which often refuses to intervene by becoming part of the privacy of the family, and that, to feel less guilty, tends to remove the problem by placing it only in marginal areas.
The lack of protection of childhood and the performance of society
For example, if the data on sexual abuse are true (19% of women have suffered them and 15% of men), we would have to ask how many of the people around us have suffered such abuse? In each classroom, how many children are suffering now?
There is a positive point in this story: many citizens have decided to act to improve the situation of children. And they do so with decisions as compromised as welcoming children in their home or demanding that the Administration take measures to support the children. The documentary shows this attitude of civil society, with examples taken from the daily life of foster parents, social services workers, lawyers ...
Carmen Artero is the main thread of the documentary, mother of four children, and “kangaroo mother” of two more. Together with her and her family, the documentary shows professionals, representatives in a certain way of society, who are looking for solutions that sometimes involve separating children from their parents. The monsters of my house show this reality through the testimony and actions of its protagonists, professionals of child protection services, psychologists, associations ... and the story and daily life of Carmen, a "kangaroo mother" of Mallorca.
Several cases of adults that relate how they were abused in their childhood are reflected. But also It reflects on today's children, because before, now and in the future, children need a protective environment to develop healthily. And if by protective environment we understand society as a whole, we can ask ourselves, would we be able to detect a case of sexual abuse of a child? Would we believe the little one if in a confession he told us that a relative of his is forcing him to have sexual practices with him? Wouldn't we be as guilty as the aggressor if we closed our eyes?
On the website of 'The monsters of my house', Fran Bravo tells us that 'The animations for this documentary have been, without a doubt, the most difficult to face in my entire career. Not so much for its technical aspect as for its emotional intensity '.
Trying to make the public visualize the suffering, the horror that some children live was not an easy task. You had to try to understand all the parties involved to be able to represent them correctly. It certainly wasn't a pleasant process.
It is time for reflection
This graphic document is important to me, because I think it is necessary that we all receive this type of information. When I contacted them a while ago to present it in Peques y Más, Marta del Hierro, who is one of the co-directors of 'Los monsters de mi casa', was delighted that we gave it to her. In the documentary, Castilian, French and Catalan are used, but it continuously shows us the subtitles in Spanish, so that no one 'misses' the stories told.
The least that any of us can do for unprotected children is to receive this type of information. Be aware that the situations that are reported in 'The monsters of my house', can occur in any geographical place and in families of any social condition.
Meanwhile, Carmen Artero continues her fight for the rights of unprotected children, and works on the project to create the Digna Childhood Foundation.
