
The Child in Cinema
Karen Lury(Author)
BFI Publishing
Published on 22. September 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-84457-512-1 (ISBN)
Description
This 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 Etre 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.
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.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
40 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
516 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84457-512-1 (9781844575121)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Person
Karen Lury is Professor of Film and Television Studies in the School of Culture and Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow, UK. She has published widely on film and television, on children's media, British cinema and television aesthetics, including the monographs British Youth Television: cynicism and enchantment (2001), Interpreting Television (Bloomsbury, 2005) and The Child in Film (2010). She has been an editor of the international film and television studies journal, Screen, for over 15 years.
Content
Introduction - 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 Sairam de Ferias (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
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 Sairam de Ferias (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