Trailer for Tough Love.
In 2012, over 250,000 American children were taken into foster care. Despite sensationalized media cases, most parents lose their kids because of insufficient housing and family support, not abuse. Tough Love follows the gripping stories of two families stuck in the struggle. Fearing for his daughter’s safety, Patrick called Child Protective Services from prison to have her removed from her drug-addicted mother’s custody. Now released and employed, he ticks all his caseworker’s boxes, but his confidence erodes inside every courtroom. Nineteen-year-old Hannah was beaten by the father of her two kids, and eventually lost custody to his mother. Remarried to a good man and pregnant, the stable life she’s building still doesn’t satisfy “requirements.” This rare look into the inner workings of the child welfare service reveals the raw vulnerabilities, maddening bureaucracy and entrenched prejudices of a system that hurts as much as it seeks to help.