Notes on 'White Girl'

Genre: Social Realism (also how stereotypes are challenged)
White Girl is a BBC TV Drama from a season called The White Season.
Focus: construction of white working class, ethnic minorities and gender.
The clip opens up with a young girl on a small little girl bike which indicates that she could be quite poor and she cannot afford a new bike.
A shot of the father holding onto the young girl's finger shows he has a lot of control over her and the family by the stare he gives her.
The family runaway from the father which shows he is possibly abusive and not a very nice person to live with.
The young girl is clearly unaware of foriegn people living in England by the expression on her face and the mid-shot of the girl getting a closer look of her new neighbours.
The soundtrack is from an ethnic background which shows that the programme is mixing two worlds together.
The programme shows the older sister, Leah, taking care of her younger sister and this could point to their mother being incapable of looking after them by herself.
When the young children go to school they are the only white children there and they feel lost and confused and the teacher is doing bible teachings from the Qu'ran when the children are Catholic.
In the beginning Leah is rude towards the people who are different from her because she is confused about them and their lifestyle and she is shown to be ignorant towards other things.
There is a two people shot of the children which shows innocence within them because they are too young to be seeing acts of violence from their parents.
Close up of each character's face in the cafe engages us into their emotions and it is revealed that the wife does a lot more for the husband, than he does for her.
Reverse shot between children and the mother shows how hard the mother is trying to cope by herself while the children feel isolated and confused in the new city.
The mother comes home in one clip and she is excited about twenty pounds, this shows that the family have never had a large amount of money because they are excited over this small amount.
Low angle shots of the birds indicates the freedom Leah strives for.
In the programme there is a flipped reality with the white children lost in a school full of muslim children and not the other way around which is how other television programmes portray it.
Sterotypes are broken because the teacher is shown to be wise, while the mother of Leah's family cannot read or write and it is also revealed that she never went to school.
Leah is starting to obey the new school rules, while her younger brother is doing everything he can to break them which shows that he is looking up to his father in a bad way.
There is a tracking shot up Leah's body which shows the annoyance she feels through her body language.
There is a mid-shot of the mother's feet running away and abandoning her children, and the audience feels pity for the mother because the children want to see their dad while she is trying to protect them from him.
Focus on the bottle of alcohol, then the focus on the mother, then focus on a coca-cola can which is filled with alcohol shows that the mother is starting to lose control.
A shot through the eyes of Leah of the mother and father putting the children to bed while Leah is isolated and is just an onlooker.
Leah begins identifying with Islam and using it as a way to escape from the family home, she steals a bible book from the school.
When the mother lets the father back into their lives it shows the mother is falling apart and that she cannot cope by herself.
Leah hides the prayer book from her mother which shows she cannot confide in her or communicate with her.
The pashmina, which Leah wraps around her head, is brighter than most of the things within the mise-en-scene.
Tracking shot around the mosque shows it is different and it is a new discovery for Leah.
Leah is upstairs away from the father downstairs with the young children who are asleep on the sofa which is irresponsible to let children stay up late.
Parents are shown to be racist because of the way they treat them and their beliefs and by throwing away the milk that they give them when they move in.
Blue scarf signifies religious differences, protest, declaration of faith and identity and Leah uses the blue scarf as a weapon againist the parents.
The two houses next to each other has a low wall separating them and through the programme it is like a barrier between the Islams and white people but because the wall is low it can be stepped over. The barrier between them signifies the separation of two cultures and attitudes to family and children.
When the white family moved into the neighbourhood the Asian family accepted their new neighbours for who they are, the acceptance is unconditional. This is illustrated by them offering Leah's family a pint of milk but because of irrational prejudice Leah's family throws the milk away.