Video: Replacement

Many foreign domestic helpers are parents themselves. As each of our collaterals are meant to stand individually, this video explores the sacrifice domestic helpers make in leaving their children behind, not just from the perspective of the domestic helper, but from her child who grows up without her.

As such, the video is a parallel montage, capturing the domestic helper’s life in relation to her interaction with the child she tends to, in contrast to the life of her son who grows up without the attention of his mother.

This juxtaposition captures their unfortunate reality: the mother leaves to support and raise her own child, yet she arguably can only do so by providing financial support. She forgoes moments with her own child, and instead spends time with someone not related to her by blood, so that her son can grow up and forge memories of his own.

The video intentionally captures day-to-day activities associated with parents and their children, such as walking home from school and eating together — these are simple but tender moments. By focusing on the lack of a motherly figure, the plight of the domestic helper’s child becomes all the more heart-wrenching, drawing attention to a cost that most domestic helpers grapple with when they choose to leave home for employment.

Most shots are from a third person’s perspective, because our target audience is the typical Singaporean family. Most of the video is shot to allow the viewer to feel like an outsider watching a scene unfold. However, a few key scenes are shot over-the-shoulder — when the children are drawing, and when the domestic helper opens the letter. We used a first-person’s perspective to strengthen the continuity and impart the scene with a more impactful reminder of the physical distance between the mother and her son.