In New Rochelle, New York, a 24-hour daycare is a lifesaver for parents who work multiple jobs and odd hours to make ends meet. Through the stories of two working mothers and a childcare provider, Through the Night reveals the personal cost of rising wealth inequality in America and the close bonds forged between parents, children and caregivers.

This guide is an invitation to dialogue. It is based on a belief in the power of human connection and designed for people who want to use Through the Night to engage family, friends, classmates, colleagues, and communities. In contrast to initiatives that foster debates in which participants try to convince others that they are right, this document envisions conversations undertaken in a spirit of openness in which people try to understand one another and expand their thinking by sharing viewpoints and listening actively.

The discussion prompts are intentionally crafted to help a wide range of audiences think more deeply about the issues in the film. Rather than attempting to address them all, choose one or two that best meet your needs and interests. And be sure to leave time to consider taking action. Planning next steps can help people leave the room feeling energized and optimistic, even in instances when conversations have been difficult.

For more detailed event planning and facilitation tips, visit communitynetwork.amdoc.org.

Key Participants

• Deloris “Nunu” Hogan - Owner Dee’s Tots
• Patrick “Pop Pop” Hogan - Owner Dee’s Tots
• Marisol Valencia - Mother who works 3 jobs
• Shanona Tate - Nurse who works the overnight shift

Key Issues

Through the Night is an excellent tool for outreach and will be of special interest to people who want to explore the following topics:

Mothering and Motherhood

○ Childhood and children

○ Child care and caregivers

○ Community

○ Family and extended family structure

Exceptionalism, Meritocracy & Communal Care

○ Paid and Unpaid Labor

○ Income Inequality

○ Social Justice

○ Self-care

○ Race

○ Capitalism

○ Gender Equality

○ Precarity

The African proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child” highlights the importance of community centered child-rearing. Raising healthy, happy, holistic children takes the insight, influence and input of many trusted individuals and groups. Between immediate and extended family members, neighbors, caregivers, educational and extra-curricular cohorts; a child’s ‘village’ is critical to their emotional, intellectual, physical, mental and social development.

Through the Night highlights the exhausting intersection of gender inequality, racism and the constant economic precarity plaguing working class families. Women often bear the responsibility of raising children, are paid less than their male counterparts and face unique socio-economic and racial challenges. Thegig economy, primarily service industry jobs that trap people with temporary labor and low wages, disproportionately affects Black and Latinx workers. The COVID-19 pandemic magnified the disparities destroying marginalized communities beholden to industries that often demand more than they deliver. Flexible hours with limited access to health care, sick leave and unemployment benefits perpetuate toxic work environments. In the film we see the toll the cycle of capitalism has on mothers, in particular, fighting to provide for their families.

The Economic Policy Institute released a report in January 2020 showing American parents are annually spending$42 billion for childcare and early education programs. TheU.S. Census in 2021 estimates there are close to 7 million households with children under 5 years old, not including homes that also support grandchildren and extended family members, and those families spend anaverage of $10,000 for childcare. Childcare is getting more and more expensive nationwide but especially in urban centers and densely populated areas.

Providing and finding safe, affordable and convenient care for children is overwhelmingly the responsibility of women and working mothers. In2018 an American Community Survey by the U.S. Census indicated that about two-thirds of the 23.5 million women with children under 18 worked full time and working mothers account for 32% of all employed women. As essential workers, 40% of employed mothers work in health care, education, hospitality and social services.

Despite the educational, employment and economic advancements all women have made in the last 50 years, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted Black, Hispanic and single mothers. TheU.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported in September 2020 that Black women’s average unemployment rate was 10.9% and Hispanic women 11.4% compared to 7.6% for their white counterparts. The National Women’s Law Center estimated that women in the U.S. account for 55% of the overall job loss since the onset of the pandemic. The pandemic is not the root cause of these tremendous setbacks but it has exposed the inequities that affect minority communities. Specifically, race, gender, class and socio-economic status in the United States and the intersection of systemic racism, sexism and capitalism.

A 2020-2021 New York Times multimedia series “The Primal Scream” explores the crisis American mothers are facing during this once in a generation catastrophe. Since the onset of the crisis in March 2020, close to 1 million mothers haveleft the workforce and the nonprofit Feeding America discoveredone in four children under 18 are currently food insecure. Women and working mothers daily face the impossible decision of how to provide the basic necessities for their families and care for their children.

March 24, the day into the year in which it takes women on average to earn what men did the previous year, is known asEqual Pay Day in the U.S. This date is a stark reminder of the income inequality between women and men. In 2021, white women earn 82 cents for every dollar earned by white men according to data analyzed by the National Women’s Law Center. However Black women earn 63 cents, Native American women 60 cents and Latina women 55 cents in comparison.

Through the Night highlights the burnout that many women and working mothers face due to the demands on their busy lives. More than just a catchphrase, burnout is a WHO-certified health condition impacting millions of families nationwide. In 2019 theWorld Health Organization declared burnout an “occupational phenomenon resulting from chronic workplace stress”.

Passionately persistent in all the paid and unpaid labor women participate in, intentional self-care is a revolutionary act. Through the Night showcases the detrimental health and well-being effects of being overworked and exhausted. Creating the boundaries necessary to properly rest, recover and rejuvenate is essential to continuing the critical community care provided by essential workers.

PROMPT ONE: STARTING THE CONVERSATION

Immediately after the film, you may want to give people a few quiet moments to reflect on what they have seen. You could pose a general question (examples below) and give people some time to themselves to jot down or think about their answers before opening the discussion. Alternatively, you could ask participants to share their thoughts with a partner before starting a group discussion.

• What moments in the film resonated with you?
• What moments surprised you the most?
• How do you interpret the film’s title?
• If you could ask anyone in the film a question, whom would it be and what would you ask?
• If you were going to describe this film to someone, what would you say?

Choose one or more topics to discuss that may resonate with your participants:

MOTHERING & MOTHERHOOD

• What did you learn from each woman’s story and their roles as mothers?
• What resonated with you about their mothering journeys?
• What are some ways your own experiences with mothering or motherhood have shaped your lived experiences?
• Name some of the ways the film shows people including children engaged in mothering?
• How did seeing this make you feel? Do you think there may be anything like this happening in your own community? Why or why not?
• Did the film cause you to reflect on how you were mothered as a child?
• What are some methods you have adopted with your own children?
• What are you doing differently and why?
• What are the ways mothering as a verb can be brought into your activist spaces to make life better for caregivers?

CHILDCARE & CAREGIVERS

• Are you a childcare provider or caregiver, or do you have experiences working with childcare providers? If so, how did the film resonate with you? Did this film affect your relationship to thinking of the labor and necessity of childcare?
• Reflecting on your lived experiences, how did these roles of childcare providers or caregivers impact your life?
• What are some ways communities can support caregivers and childcare providers?

FRAMES OF PRECARITY: GENDER, RACE, AND CAPITALISM

• The film explores the intersection of precarity, gender inequality, capitalism and racism, what elements of this matrix stuck out to you most? Have your lived experiences intersected with these elements? If so, how?
• At what moments of the film were the ways that race, gender, and capitalism collaborate to create conditions for workers most salient? In what ways would you describe the conditions that these forces collectively create?
• Which communities does the rising cost of childcare impact most directly and in what ways does this film teach us about the experiences of those who are most impacted?

COMBATING STEREOTYPES THAT SHAPE BIPOC (BLACK INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF COLOR) CAREGIVERS AND WOMEN, IN PARTICULAR, EXPERIENCES OF SELF-CARE

• Was there anything, or anyone, in the film that you see reflected in your city or neighborhood?
  • If yes, in what ways and how did this film deepen your understanding of those in your community?
  • If no, in what ways and how did this film deepen your understanding of yourself and your community in relation to others?
• What might care look like for the BIPOC caregiver or yourself? How does this film reflect care in radical and community-based ways?
• What are ways you think communities can support you in the work that you do?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR CHILDREN:

The film features the voices and experiences of children prominently. Consider holding screenings within the childcare facilities you operate or with the children in your lives. Here are some discussion questions for younger audiences:

• What was your favorite part of the movie and why?
• In the film, one of the kids talks about how his mother needs to get “Big
• Rest?” What are some of the things you’ve suggested your parents do when you notice they are cranky or just tired?
• What’s one small task you can complete this week that you can do to help your parents?
• Where are the places that you feel heard? Where are spaces that you feel Silenced?
• How does it make you feel when an adult listens to you?
• Marisol’s daughter says that she is afraid to grow up and have to work all the time? How did that make you feel? Do you think your caregiver likes their job? Do you feel like they work too much? If so, why do you think they do it? In what ways do you wish things were different for your parents?

POV’s Delve Deeper Reading List - this is a source filled with resources for young learners and adult learners to more deeply engage in themes Through the Night highlights

For Mothers & Caregivers
● Post-Partum Support International

● National Parent Helpline

● “We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood” by Dani

McClain

● Parenting for Liberation by Trina Greene Brown

● ChildCare.gov

● Latinx Parenting

For Childcare Providers
● Coronavirus Support Resource for Domestic Workers

● Home-based Childcare Network and Training Institute


For Allies & Advocates
● Essential Care Fundraiser

● Nanny Employer Checklist for hiring during COVID

● “Deepening Your Understanding of Race and Racism” | Tools for

Anti-Racist Teaching by PBS Learning Media

To Support Mental Health
● National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

● National Institute of Mental Health

Community Caredefined
● Focusing International – Community wellness resource planning

● Nakita Valerio – Trains in reclaiming culturally relevant care

● Ioby – Community centered crowdfunding

● Promise the Children

To Support Food and Housing Insecurity

● United Way

● Mutual Aid Hub

For Legal Advice

● Center for WorkLife Law

● The National Women’s Law Center

● A Better Balance

From the Film Team

• https://www.throughthenightfilm.com/resources here you’ll find replays with the filmmakers and film protagonists that address communal care and mothering as resistance

Sources

• Christnacht, Cheridan, and Briana Sullivan. "The Choices Working Mothers Make."United States Census Bureau. May 8, 2020. Web. <https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/05/the-choices-working-mothers-make.html>.
• Equal Pay Today!. "Equal Pay Days." Web. <http://www.equalpaytoday.org/>.
• Feeding America. "The Impact of the Coronavirus on Food Insecurity in 2020." October 2020. Web. <https://www.feedingamerica.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/Brief_Local%20Impact_10.2020_0.pdf>.
• Gould, Elise, and Hunter Blair. "Who’s paying now? The explicit and implicit costs of the current early care and education system."Economic Policy Institute. January 15, 2020. Web. <https://www.epi.org/publication/whos-paying-now-costs-of-the-current-ece-system/>.
• Grose, Jessica. "The Primal Scream: America's Mothers are in Crisis." New York Times, February 4, 2021, Web. <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/04/parenting/working-moms-coronavirus.html>.
• Hern, Alex. “Gig economy traps workers in precarious existence, says report.” The Guardian, January 29, 2020, Web. <https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/29/gig-economy-traps-workers-in-precarious-existence-says-report>.
• Honest Buck Accounting. "Average Daycare Costs Across the United States (2020)." 2020. Web. <https://honestbuck.com/average-daycare-costs-united-states/>.
• Karageorge, Eleni X. "COVID-19 recession is tougher on women."Bureau of Labor Statistics. September 2020. Web. <https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2020/beyond-bls/covid-19-recession-is-tougher-on-women.htm>.
• Tedeschi, Ernie. "The Mystery of how Many Mothers have Left Work because of School Closings." New York Times, October 29, 2020, Web. <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/upshot/mothers-leaving-jobs-pandemic.html>.
• United States Census Bureau. "Historical Living Arrangements of Children." December 2020. Web. <https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/families/children.html>.
• World Health Organization. “Burn-out an ‘occupational phenomenon’ International Classification of Diseases.” May 28, 2019. Web. <https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases>.

THE FILM: STAY IN TOUCH

Website: https://www.throughthenightfilm.com

Trailer: https://www.throughthenightfilm.com/about

Facebook: @throughthenightdoc

Twitter: @ThrutheNightdoc

Instagram: @throughthenightdoc

Hashtag: #ThroughTheNight

About The Author

Dr. Imani M. Cheers, Discussion Guide Creator
Imani M. Cheers is an Associate Professor of digital storytelling and the Associate Director in the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. She is also the Director of Academic Adventures for Planet Forward. Dr. Cheers received her B.F.A in Photography from Washington University in St. Louis and an M.A. in African Studies and a Ph.D. in Mass Communication and Media Studies from Howard University.

Dr. Cheers is an award-winning digital storyteller, director, producer, and filmmaker. As a professor of practice, she uses a variety of mediums including video, photography, television, and film to document and discuss issues impacting and involving people of the African Diaspora. Her scholarly focus is on the intersection of women/girls, technology, health, conflict, agriculture, and the effects of climate change in sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Cheers is also an expert on diversity in Hollywood, specifically the representation of Black women in television and film. She is the author of The Evolution of Black Women in Television: Mammies, Matriarchs, and Mistresses (Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2017). Her work has been supported by the Ford Foundation and the International Reporting Project. Dr. Cheers is also a regular contributor for international outlets including BBC, CGTN America, and CTN Canada, offering insight into American race relations and popular culture.

Discussion Guide Producer, POV

Courtney Cook, Education Manager

A co-production of POV and ITVS in association with Latino Public Broadcasting and Black Public Media.