Christmas with Dad

At first this documentary film grabbed my attention for the wrong reasons as it looked like it was just going to be about a large family of kids trying to cope with not much money at Christmas which to an extent it was but as it went on you could really start to feel for this man and the kids.
I liked it because it was interesting and funny but also had an underlying sadness to it as well as you found out about AJ's (the Dad's) past and present life. AJ of whom is the main focus of this documentary is only 23 living with an older woman and her 8 children of which only 2 were biologically his and they both have one on the way. The documentary centres around his thought and feelings on matters while also finding out more about him as a person.
I liked how it was shot with AJ being interviewed either on the doorstep or the street, which was not very glamourous but gave a real sense of how poor the family probably were and was staying true to them,  but then inbewtween mid-close up shots (so quite intimate) of him him talking there would be scenes of the children in the house just getting up to their normal things and also hearing their take on things too as it felt like you were getting quite up close and personal with the family and like nothing was being held back.
 I think the point of asking AJ questions somewhere away from the family was so that he would share all with us without any interruptions of worried that his family would hear, I also think it's so that us the audience could really concentrate on what he said and empathise with him as he poured his heart out to the interviewer.
As I watched I remember thinking the lighting was quite dull or possibly had a bit of a cold feel to it, even with all the Christmas lights on which I think may have been to symbolise that there is something hanging over this family. I think it could be something that Aj told us about his father going blind at a young age and that his eyesight also was deteriorating, that meant he too would soon be blind.
I don't remember there being much sound either apart from the talking and background noise, there was music at the beginning which had quite a sad tune to it which kind of set the tone off from the beginning.
 Despite the family being large and quite poor (so probably living off benefits) and the audience probably not agreeing with everything they saw, like the baby chewing on the cigarette packet, the way it was shot made it hard to dislike this guy. They did that by playing with our emotional strings and making us feel for him and the situation. I also feel it was his frankness and honesty and in many ways his innocence along with his not so lovely background that made him quite appealing to a judgemental audience.