Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Big Girls Don’t Cry (2002)

play May contain names, images or voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip Wouldn't change a thing education content clip 1, 2, 3

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Mariah as a young girl talks about karate, and living an active life. Mariah’s parents Angie and Dave talk about what is required to support Mariah in living with her condition. A medical practitioner tells us that after a transplant, the body always recognises the foreign kidney and that immune suppressants are required to be taken by the patient every day so that the body does not reject the transplanted kidney.

Curator’s notes

The bravery of the family who, with Mariah, must live with kidney disease every day, is unmistakable. The love and dedication of Mariah’s parents in supporting their daughter is imperative to the young girl’s well-being, and as the doctor tells us, a kidney transplant is a treatment rather than a cure.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This clip shows Mariah nine years after receiving a donor kidney. The clip opens with an image of the newspaper article that told of 'Mariah’s second chance’. A dissolve reveals 10-year-old Mariah talking with her mother about her karate trophies and then playing ball with her family. Her father is shown taking her to the hospital for a regular check-up. A doctor, in interview, explains why Mariah must take special drugs throughout her life. Angie, Mariah’s mother, speaks of her gratitude for the transplant and, with some distress, of how she blamed herself for Mariah’s disease.

Educational value points

  • This clip provides testimony, through the images of Mariah living a healthy and active life, to the positive outlook for children who receive a kidney transplant. Mariah is living a healthy and active life with a transplanted kidney she received as an infant. The prospects for quality of life and long-term outcomes for such children have greatly improved over the last 30 years.
  • Mariah is one of the fortunate Australians to have received a kidney transplant that has saved her life, although it requires her, like all transplant recipients, to take daily doses of immunosuppressant medication. These drugs are to prevent the body from rejecting the new kidney and, as the doctor explains, Mariah will have to take them for as long as she has the kidney in her.
  • The clip refers to side-effects experienced by people who take immunosuppressant drugs and shows a doctor checking Mariah for adverse side-effects. These effects vary with each individual. Among the less critical side-effects are puffiness and roundness of the face, unwanted hair growth, above-normal weight gain, mood swings, overgrowth of gums and gum infection and acne. More serious side-effects include an increased risk of infection.
  • Chronic illness can place great psychological stress on family members and the filmmaker reveals Angie’s anguish in a moving scene where she recalls the guilt she felt during Mariah’s illness. Such feelings are not uncommon for parents of a child with an illness, who ask themselves if they have caused the disease or could have done something to prevent it. In most cases of kidney disease they could neither have caused nor prevented it.
  • The kidneys perform the essential function of removing waste products and extra water from the blood, which are then flushed from the body in the form of urine. They also regulate blood pressure, balance essential chemicals such as sodium and potassium, produce hormones to help bones grow and keep the blood healthy by making new red blood cells. Damage to the kidneys impairs their capacity to perform these functions and wastes build up in the blood.
  • The clip is from the documentary Big Girls Don’t Cry, produced by the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) about Indigenous women living with kidney disease. Established in 1980 and owned by the Indigenous people of central Australia, the Association’s primary purpose is to represent Indigenous Australians in film and television. This film is in the form of an informational report and its purpose is also to persuade Aboriginal people to seek medical advice.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer Wouldn't change a thing from the documentary Big Girls Don't Cry as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

File nameSizeQualitySuitability
biggirls2_pr.mp4 Large: 22.1MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
biggirls2_bb.mp4 Medium: 10.4MB Medium Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods.

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip: