The documentary Painted Babies is produced by Jean Treays and she constructed it using visual techniques and conventions to persuade the viewer to adopt the views towards the parents, especially the mothers of the baby girls. It has the characterization of the parents and the babies as well as the selection of interview and scenes. the techniques are used in the documentary to shape the viewers on certain issues like the beauty pageants and the lost of childhood and how parents live life through their children.
Asia Mansur and Brooke Breed are done is such a way as to position us against the non-stop encouraging that the parents put on their children. In the first scenes there is an interview response from the grandmother who has looked through a magazine to find a prize that Asia could win and thought of getting a car for herself and didn’t even think of getting anything for Asia. the way she said that “she is getting a car” sounded to me that she is so manipulative and selfish bastard that uses her granddaughter to work for them. Boo is Asia’s father, and is also like the Grandmother because he likes getting Asia into lots of beauty pageants so that they get the prize money for their own. Grandmother told Asia that she needs a car, and we really want money, money, money, and this shows that Asia’s priorities in life have been dramatically adjusted by the parents and how they have treated their child had changed. As a result, the way the parents treated Asia shows the viewer to see how parents will manipulate their babies and force their babies to go into beauty pageants.
Through the selection of and omission of certain characters and scenes, the documentary has successfully demonstrated how beauty pageants can have inimical effects on a family. Throughout the documentary, family members other than the girls and their supporters are rarely ever exhibited. The siblings of the two girls are never seen or mentioned. Randy, the husband of Pam