Well-made look at an all-too common situation-grandparents raising their grandchildren

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Walter Dee

Viola Dees

The story of Viola Dees, an elderly woman who is trying to care for her troubled grandson.

Tracy Seretean

Big Mama

This documentary short, which quite deservedly won the Oscar, is about an increasingly common circumstance-a grandmother, elderly and ailing, left to raise her grandson, with little or no help from anywhere.  As the grandson becomes more and more of a problem, more rebellious and destructive, it becomes quite obvious that she can no longer manage to care for him.  While much is made of the authorities handling of the situation, I find it telling (and more than a bit disheartening) that the fact that no one else in the boy&apos;s family was either willing or able to take the young man in and he winds up just another statistic was touched on almost glancingly.  I fear that the only person who cared enough about Walter was his grandmother and she sadly was too weak physically to stand the rigors of raising him.  A sad (and somewhat frightening) look at life in our times.

This documentary short, which quite deservedly won the Oscar, is about an increasingly common circumstance-a grandmother, elderly and ailing, left to raise her grandson, with little or no help from anywhere.  As the grandson becomes more and more of a problem, more rebellious and destructive, it becomes quite obvious that she can no longer manage to care for him.  While much is made of the authorities handling of the situation, I find it telling (and more than a bit disheartening) that the fact that no one else in the boy's family was either willing or able to take the young man in and he winds up just another statistic was touched on almost glancingly.  I fear that the only person who cared enough about Walter was his grandmother and she sadly was too weak physically to stand the rigors of raising him.  A sad (and somewhat frightening) look at life in our times.

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Big Mama

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