Alanna
2009 · 25m · Canada
Directed by Julie Plourde
Genres: documentary, family
Tones: contemplative, tender
A girl raised in Yukon wilderness lives with fetal alcohol syndrome after prenatal exposure. Her adoptive family's account highlights an underestimated health crisis.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A documentary about FAS and adoption could've been a PSA, but Plourde refuses easy catharsis—the family's testimony is messy, unglamorous, and doesn't resolve into inspiration-porn, which is the only reason it's worth watching.
Plourde situates herself within the observational documentary tradition while avoiding its pitfalls; the film's formal restraint—letting the family speak without instrumental scoring or editorial hand-holding—places it alongside the best of recent contemplative nonfiction.
The entire weight of the film rests on Plourde's decision to let silences breathe and let Alanna's presence do the narrative work rather than her diagnosis; it's a restraint that costs nothing and changes everything.