Child, Part 2: Jamie, Ethan and Keir: 2-14 Months
1973 · 28m · Canada
Directed by Robert Humble
Genres: documentary, family
Tones: contemplative, tender
Three toddlers crawl, stand and explore a world newly within reach as curiosity drives early learning.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Okay, a 28-minute documentary of babies doing baby things sounds like the definition of consensus cinema—except Humble shoots it with the patience of a structural filmmaker, letting duration and observation become the subversion itself; watching this, you realize the experimental essay film was lurking in the nursery the whole time.
Humble's *Child, Part 2* sits squarely in the lineage of observational documentary and developmental cinema, where temporal patience and formal restraint become the subject—the measured gaze here recalls both Wiseman's methodical eye and the pedagogical film tradition, executed with the kind of considered duration that rewards close viewing.
The singular choice is time itself: Humble commits fully to real developmental rhythm rather than montage, which means the *editing* is an act of trust—letting a toddler's micro-movements and failed attempts accumulate into genuine discovery, turning what could be home video into something formally precise.