The Parents begins with a couple attending an ultrasound screening, realizing that they will be having twins.
The film jumps forward in time and the parents are now dealing with early mornings, towers of diapers, and new problems once the twins learn to walk. The mom and dad hastily baby proof the home, protecting the
children from potential dangers. Their lives become an unrelenting stream of work, sleepless nights, diaper changes, and chasing toddlers.
Towards the end, the film reaches a pivot point when the mother heads out to buy diapers. As she drives the mother doze off, drawn to sleep by the brief moment of serenity. She is slowly drifting into the opposite lane of oncoming traffic when the car alerts her and automatically steers back into its lane, avoiding a dramatic accident to happen. Supers appear: The car that looks after you, like you look after others.
Cultural / Context information for the jury
The portrayal of parents in the media is often unrealistic, creating impossible standards to live up to and a
harsh social media climate. This image often leads to “parent shaming”, when moms and dads are guilted when they don’t live up to this unachievable standard. We wanted to go down a different route: to show that even the most exceptional parent gets tired and makes mistakes.
To fully utilize this idea in social media, we used an online phenomenon, so-called “parent saves”, and combined it with our own footage to create humorous short clips. And to break category language in still images, we combined beautiful car photography with chaotic family life. All assets led to the same powerful message: sometimes, we all need someone looking after us.
Tell the jury about the choice of music track.
The song, Hard times in the Mill, was originally written by Pete Seeger in the 1950's to describe the toilsome life of industry workers, but is repurposed in this film to portray modern parenthood. The song is fast-paced and repetitive, which connects with the life of twin parents.
The lyrics are surprisingly to the point for both workers and modern day parents; the early mornings, the long hours, alarm bells and working hard around the clock. The lack of a break and the repetitious structure echoes the life of a new parent: looping, wearisome, and without pause. By starting over in the last few seconds of the film also adds to the repetitive structure of being trapped in a spiral.