Description
Book SynopsisThis book brings together a host of internationally recognised scholars to provide an interdisciplinary perspective on the representation of the child in cinema. Individual chapters examine how children appear across a broad range of films, including
Badlands (1973),
Ratcatcher (1999)
, Boyhood (2014),
My Neighbour Totoro (1988), and
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). They also consider the depiction of children in non-fiction and non-theatrical films, including the documentaries
Être et Avoir (2002) and
Capturing the Friedmans (2003), art installations and public information films. Through a close analysis of these films, contributors examine the spaces and places children inhabit and imagine; a concern for children’s rights and agency; the affective power of the child as a locus for memory and history; and the complexity and ambiguity of the child figure itself. The essays also argue the global reach of cinema featuring children, including analyses of films from the former Yugoslavia, Brazil and India, as well as exploring the labour of the child both in front of and behind the camera as actors and filmmakers. In doing so, the book provides an in-depth look into the nature of child performance on screen, across a diverse range of cinemas and film-making practices.
Table of ContentsIntroduction - Karen Lury
Space and time 1. The Dreamhouse Amelie Hastie
2. Children’s right to space, place and home Owain Jones
3. Synchrony in the work of Hayao Miyazaki Robert Maslen
Screen performance 4.
The achievement of Janis Wilson, Hollywood juvenile supporting actor. Martin Shingler
5. Performing black boyhood, quiet and Moonlight Karen Lury
6. Children in Documentaries: or, the camera never lies Stella Bruzzi
Histories 7. Kusturica’s Children: the bubble that bursts history. Dimitris Eleftheriotis
8. The child imprisoned in history: crystalline community building in O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias (Brazil, 2006) David Martin Jones
9. Beginnings and Children Lalitha Gopalan
Beyond cinema 10. The Child in Surrealism: Bellmer, Cornell, Hillier David Hopkins
11. Mind How You Go: children and the public information film Andrew Burke
12. ‘We know what it’s actually like’: voice, dialect and self-efficacy in Scotland’s Understanding Cinema project Jamie Chambers Bibliography Index
