Failure to protect is a charge aimed at punishing a negligent parent who failed to safeguard a child from serious harm. Years ago I worked for a woman whose ex-husband copped to twice pleasuring himself while their 4-year-old son slept next to him. Looking to remove the boy from a toxic environment, mom whisked him across the border to regroup at her family home in Tijuana. She was later charged with kidnapping and her husband granted full custody of the child. Jeremy Pion-Berlin’s Failure 2 Protect presents a similar gallery of mother's looking to get their children back, in a documentary that’s quick to point out that under the law, a criminal has more rights than an average parent. The film presents a brief, but fascinating history of social working. Once upon a time, the rules that applied to the prevention of cruelty to animals we're the same laws used to protect kids. Today, parents are forbidden from entering hearsay while social workers are not. The film is definitely one-sided, but it’s a side we seldom hear. (2022) — Scott Marks