Public showings of the film "Babies" will be offered through a collaboration among the Purdue University North Central Odyssey 2010 - 2011 Arts and Cultural Events Series, LaPorte County Public Library and Michigan City Public Library. The showings are free and open to the public. 
The film will be shown on Sunday, Oct. 17 at 2 p.m. at the Michigan City Public Library, 100 E. Fourth St., Michigan City; Tuesday, Oct. 19 at 6 p.m. in the LaPorte Library, 904 Indiana Ave., LaPorte and on Thursday, Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. at PNC in the Library-Student-Faculty Building Assembly Hall, Room 02. The film is rated PG for cultural and maternal nudity.
"Babies" is a documentary by Thomas Balmes that follows the lives of four babies from four countries for an entire year. The babies come from incredibly diverse backgrounds - Mari is from Japan and Hattie from San Francisco and both girls live in comfortable homes surrounded by the world's most recent innovations.
Ponijao is from Namibia, lives in a hut and his play toys are sticks; Bayarjargal is from Mongolia and has chickens and goats as "pets."
The movie features little music and no narration. Most of its playing time features a look at babies doing things that babies do - play, eat, gurgle and babble. The audience not only sees the baby but its surroundings - its home, the country road outside and the life that surrounds it. But there are no voices to explain things and Roger Ebert notes it's "just babies."
Ebert gave the film three stars. According to "USA Today," "It will be hard to watch this extraordinary film and its adorable stars without a goofy smile."
Purdue University North Central Odyssey Arts and Cultural Events Series continues throughout the year. A complete schedule can be found at www.pnc.edu/odyssey. For more information about this film, or the Odyssey series, contact Judy Jacobi, PNC assistant vice chancellor of Marketing and Community Relations, at 219.785.5200 ext. 5593. Persons with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Jacobi.