Channel 4 - WITNESS

Abandoned Babies

Anthea was eight months old when someone left her in a blackberry bush high on the South Downs, discovered only by chance. Her early memories are provided by the newspaper cuttings of her being held by nurses, face covered in scratches. It's an inadequate album. Lesley was 15 when she gave birth to Gemma in her bed with her parents asleep in the next room. She left her in a carrier bag outside the local health centre, watching from her window for six hours before someone discovered the new-born baby. Ann Hawker's moving film treads a very careful path between the two sides of such an emotional issue. Morally she takes no position - the horror and the distress of both the abandoned and the abandoner are clear for all to see. Compelling and unsettling, this resonates more deeply than most current documentaries seem to dare.

Time Out magazine

Director Ann Hawker

Editor David G Hill

Music Joe Walker

Camera Ian Moss