A warm, intimate view of a subject that has become, by the documentary's definition, less controversial over the years: single parenting. In fact, the term "single parent" is even less toxic than the old moniker, "unwed mother," which gets used less and less in our society. The documentary does not bore you with statistics or sweeping generalizations. Rather, it sees the issue through the personal lens of the documentarian, a single mother herself, who was also the offspring of a single mother. The doc does not shy away from presenting the views of people who hold firm religious beliefs on the issue. But since the people can be found within the families of the individuals being portrayed, their views are presented very sincerely and without presenting them as comic fodder. "Sunshine" does not present a political agenda, but I will raise one. I thought as I watched this about Dan Quayle running for office with George H.W. Bush and how during their 1992 campaign, one of the silly issues was the TV character Murphy Brown's single mother status and how Quayle objected to that televised presentation. Fast forward to the McCain-Palin campaign of 2008... and the pregnant unmarried daughter of the vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, was the televised presentation. Same political party. How times change.
Review of Sunshine
