One will want to change the channel, yet feels compelled to continue watching. The beginning shows a lower class woman who browbeats and psychologically tears down her (yes adorable) five years old child, Swan, as she prepares her for the child beauty pagent ring. Her constant demands and critical commentary on Swan's preformance continually appear to wear the child down, as ninety % of the film, her bewilderment, weariness, and constant strain of preforming like a circus animal show on her face. The other part of the film features the daughter of a gay man, who along with his partner, have made a fortune preparing these children for the pagent circut. The daughter, Leslie, is a little older, and the contrast between the two children is sad. While Leslie is supported by her father, Swan behaves like a beaten dog trying to win the approval of a cruel master. The gay men seem to enjoy the children, and the process, yet the mother of Swan is forced. She guilts the child by saying things a five yr. old can't fully understand, i.e., 'I am taking a 3rd mortgage on my house for all of this, I am getting a third job, etc. Her other three children are in stark contrast to Swan- a troubled teenage boy who is in jail, a sixteen yr. old girl who is slightly overweight, and a virtually ignored three yr. old son. The entire film is troubling, and leads one to wonder how the subjects themselves felt after watching it, and if it changed their attitudes any.