F.A.S.: When the Children Grow Up
2002 · 40m · Canada
Directed by Sharon Bartlett, Maria LeRose
Genres: documentary
Tones: contemplative, tender
Three adults living with fetal alcohol syndrome describe how prenatal alcohol exposure has shaped their lives into adulthood. Experts explain why F.A.S. and F.A.E. remain leading causes of birth defects with lifelong effects.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A 40-minute medical-documentary-as-portraiture that could've been a PSA but instead sits in the uncomfortable space where lived experience refuses to resolve neatly—the restraint itself becomes subversive, which is either brilliant or a missed opportunity to actually interrogate why we document suffering.
Bartlett and LeRose position intimate testimony within a formal documentary tradition that traces back to direct cinema's commitment to presence; the interweaving of three adult voices with expert analysis creates a measured argument about disability and time that respects both the specificity of each person's story and the larger public-health conversation.
The film lives in the decision to let the three subjects speak without dramatic underlining—no music swells, no cutaways to stock footage—which means everything lands on the quality of listening and the subtle editorial pacing that lets silence become part of the story.