HBO Documentary: Broken Child

Remarks of Michael Mierendorf, writer and producer of the HBO documentary, BROKEN CHILD, upon accepting an award at the ATTACh Conference, Minneapolis, October, 2000.

"In BROKEN CHILD, I tried to depict how the complex and cumulative effects of child abuse, neglect, and trauma can lead to mental illness and violent or anti-social behavior. The message of BROKEN CHILD, to me, is a stark reality; that when children become emotionally or psychologically damaged that the damage is very hard to undo. no matter what the therapy or how skilled the therapist. So the lesson of the BROKEN CHILD is prevention and early intervention.

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The film itself is an amalgam of individuals and situations documenting different ways children can be harmed and looking at the implications of that harm. We shot in prisons and on the streets with homeless teenagers; in a crack house where pregnant women are engaged in prostitution to supply their habit; we filmed the work of the children's protective services and witnessed the reality of the traumatized, abused and neglected children they are called to help. We told the story of a family who had adopted a drug-affected and abused child, a child whose behavior is now overwhelming them. In Baltimore, we filmed the stories of children in a failing inner-city school, a school located in the middle of a drug infested, violent and poverty stricken neighborhood.

One thing that struck me was that throughout all these stories, there was one common thread...almost without exception, the back story was the same...a lack of early nurturing and neglect, a breaking of the maternal bond or repeated traumatic separations such as in multiple foster home placements. Attachment problems seem to be the central, common pathway of the BROKEN CHILD

I want to thank all the therapists in the attachment community that took their time, generously, to help and teach us. Forrest Lein and Paula Pickle at Evergreen, Deborah Combs from Omaha...and most especially Greg Keck who truly encouraged me in making this film. I don't want to over-romanticize this but it seems to me that you in the attachment community are not only healers, but that you have a special vision of the most essential basis of emotional health...the qualities of caring, and empathy and connection to one another."

Credits: Michael Mierendorf, writer and producer