Films about Children
- LAST REVIEWED: 13 January 2014
- LAST MODIFIED: 13 January 2014
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791231-0074
- LAST REVIEWED: 13 January 2014
- LAST MODIFIED: 13 January 2014
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791231-0074
Introduction
The image of the child in cinema appeared as early as the 1890s in the pioneering work of French filmmakers the Lumière Brothers. Scholars have remarked on the invention of the motion picture and the identification of adolescence as a noteworthy life stage by G. Stanley Hall as almost simultaneously occurring events at the beginning of the 1900s. For well over a century since then, children and youth have inhabited various, often stereotypical roles in mainstream cinema: the cherubic child, the sexualized girl, the demonic son, the troubled adolescent, the rebellious teenager, the juvenile delinquent, and so on. Film critics have posited that in some cases children have become vehicles for projections of the “other” in relation to the supposedly reasonable, civilized, usually male adult. Teen film has emerged as a genre by itself, with distinct subgenres, and youth have been considered one of the most lucrative target audiences for the film industry. Indeed children’s films, such as Disney productions and the Harry Potter series, have been major box office successes and children have become voracious consumers. Nevertheless, children’s involvement in filmmaking has given rise to concerns about thematic suitability and censorship in cinema as well as the ethical complexities of recruiting children to enact certain roles. The focus here, however, is not films for children, rather films about children; more specifically, films that depict the lived realities of children and youth around the globe. Hence, the main entries in this section are documentaries about children, some biographical films or docudramas closely based on true life events, and a few commercial films that capture a significant insight about the lives of children and youth. Broadly, the themes examined in the selected films relate to structural factors such as race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, and class that cogently shape the worlds of children, sometimes adversely; the combined effects of biological, sociocultural, physical, and environmental influences on child and youth development; schooling and educational practices; the dramatic consequences of conflict on children’s lives; forms of child abuse and exploitation; and cross-cultural comparisons.
General Overviews
Most of the literature concerns representations of children and youth in commercial films, largely from Hollywood. Considine 1985 is a pioneering analysis of adolescence in film. Doherty 1988 discusses the rise of the teen film genre in Hollywood. Driscoll 2011 focuses on anglophone films made for and about youth. Jackson 1986 traces the changing images of children pre– and post–World War II, while Lebeau 2008 historicizes cinematic representations of children highlighting themes of sexuality, violence, suffering, and death. Lury 2010 investigates the portrayal of children in selected film genres as a projection of the “other”; Shary 2005 provides a concise, chronological discussion of American teenagers in film; and Wilson 2003 analyses the missing child in film as a vehicle for grappling with related emotional and psychological issues.
Considine, David M. The Cinema of Adolescence. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland, 1985.
This seminal text chronicles the portrayal of adolescence in American films, identifying major themes—sexuality, delinquency, etc.—and character types. Examines the symbiotic relation between Hollywood and youth culture.
Doherty, Thomas. Teenagers and Teenpics: The Juvenilization of American Movies in the 1950s. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1988.
Doherty provides an in-depth examination of the emergence of the teen film phenomenon and the reasons for its exponential rise in Hollywood.
Driscoll, Catherine. Teen Film: A Critical Introduction. New York: Berg, 2011.
Provides an expansive historiography of teen film and analyses a broad spectrum of mainstream anglophone films made for and about youth.
Jackson, Kathy Merlock. Images of Children in American Film: A Sociocultural Analysis. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1986.
A study of the transforming images of children in cinema from that of pure innocence pre-World War II to significant variations observed after the war. Argues that this transformation is a consequence and reflection of the changing social, economic, and political realities of the United States.
Lebeau, Vicky. Childhood and Cinema. London: Reaktion, 2008.
A historical examination of the preoccupation with visual representations of children since the 1890s, originating from the medium of still photography and proliferating in contemporary cinema. It analyzes the complex psychological effects of visualizing themes of sexuality, violence, suffering, and death in relation to children and childhood.
Lury, Karen. The Child in Film: Tears, Fears and Fairy Tales. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2010.
Drawing on selected Japanese and American films, Lury analyzes the role of the child in cinema as a manifestation of the “other” in contrast to normative roles. Also interrogates the ethical concerns regarding the recruitment of children as actors.
Shary, Timothy. Teen Movies: American Youth on Screen. London: Wallflower, 2005.
Provides a fluid, chronological assessment of the teenage presence in American films, highlighting significant themes and characters.
Wilson, Emma. Cinema’s Missing Children. London: Wallflower, 2003.
A focused analysis of the theme of the missing child—lost, abused or dead—in independent and art cinema. Avoiding formulaic genres, she carefully chooses films to examine the role of the cinematic medium in working through psychological and emotional complexities and reconsidering parenthood in relation to the missing child.
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Article
- Abduction of Children
- Aboriginal Childhoods
- Addams, Jane
- ADHD, Sociological Perspectives on
- Adolescence and Youth
- Adolescent Consent to Medical Treatment
- Adoption and Fostering
- Adoption and Fostering, History of Cross-Country
- Adoption and Fostering in Canada, History of
- Advertising and Marketing, Psychological Approaches to
- Advertising and Marketing, Sociocultural Approaches to
- Africa, Children and Young People in
- African American Children and Childhood
- After-school Hours and Activities
- Aggression across the Lifespan
- Ancient Near and Middle East, Child Sacrifice in the
- Animals, Children and
- Animations, Comic Books, and Manga
- Anthropology of Childhood
- Archaeology of Childhood
- Ariès, Philippe
- Art History, Children in
- Attachment in Children and Adolescents
- Australia, History of Adoption and Fostering in
- Australian Indigenous Contexts and Childhood Experiences
- Autism, Females and
- Autism, Medical Model Perspectives on
- Autobiography and Childhood
- Benjamin, Walter
- Bereavement
- Best Interest of the Child
- Bioarchaeology of Childhood
- Body, Children and the
- Body Image
- Bourdieu, Pierre
- Boy Scouts/Girl Guides
- Boys and Fatherhood
- Breastfeeding
- Bronfenbrenner, Urie
- Bruner, Jerome
- Buddhist Views of Childhood
- Byzantine Childhoods
- Care, Early Childhood Education and
- Child and Adolescent Anger
- Child Beauty Pageants
- Child Homelessness
- Child Mortality, Historical Perspectives on Infant and
- Child Protection
- Child Protection, Children, Neoliberalism, and
- Child Public Health
- Child Trafficking and Slavery
- Childcare Manuals
- Childhod, Agency and
- Childhood and Borders
- Childhood and Empire
- Childhood as Discourse
- Childhood, Confucian Views of Children and
- Childhood, Memory and
- Childhood Publics
- Childhood Studies and Leisure Studies
- Childhood Studies in France
- Childhood Studies, Interdisciplinarity in
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- Childhoods in the United States, Sports and
- Childism
- Children and Dance
- Children and Film-Making
- Children and Money
- Children and Social Media
- Children and Sport
- Children and Sustainable Cities
- Children as Language Brokers
- Children as Perpetrators of Crime
- Children, Code-switching and
- Children in the Industrial Revolution
- Children with Autism in a Brazilian Context
- Children, Young People, and Architecture
- Children's Humor
- Children’s Museums
- Children’s Parliaments
- Children’s Reading Development and Instruction
- Children's Views of Childhood
- China, Japan, and Korea
- China's One Child Policy
- Citizenship
- Civil Rights Movement and Desegregation
- Class
- Classical World, Children in the
- Clothes and Costume, Children’s
- Collective Memory in Latin America, Childhoods and Collect...
- Colonial America, Child Witches in
- Colonialism and Human Rights
- Colonization and Nationalism
- Color Symbolism and Child Development
- Common World Childhoods
- Competitiveness, Children and
- Conceptual Development in Early Childhood
- Congenital Disabilities
- Constructivist Approaches to Childhood
- Consumer Culture, Children and
- Consumption, Child and Teen
- Conversation Analysis and Research with Children
- Critical Approaches to Children’s Work and the Concept of ...
- Crying
- Cultural psychology and human development
- Debt and Financialization of Childhood
- Disability
- Discipline and Punishment
- Discrimination
- Disney, Walt
- Divorce And Custody
- Dolls
- Domestic Violence
- Drawings, Children’s
- Early Childhood
- Early Childhood Care and Education, Selected History of
- Eating disorders and obesity
- Education: Learning and Schooling Worldwide
- Environment, Children and the
- Environmental Education and Children
- Ethics in Research with Children
- Eugenics
- Europe (including Greece and Rome), Child Sacrifice in
- Evolutionary Studies of Childhood
- Family Meals
- Fandom (Fan Studies)
- Fathers
- Female Genital Cutting
- Feminist New Materialist Approaches to Childhood Studies
- Feral and "Wild" Children
- Fetuses and Embryos
- Filicide
- Films about Children
- Films for Children
- Folk Tales, Fairy Tales and
- Folklore
- Food
- Foundlings and Abandoned Children
- Freud, Anna
- Freud, Sigmund
- Friends and Peers: Psychological Perspectives
- Froebel, Friedrich
- Gangs
- Gay and Lesbian Parents
- Gender and Childhood
- Generations, The Concept of
- Geographies, Children's
- Gifted and Talented Children
- Global South, Skilling Youth in the
- Globalization
- Growing Up in the Digital Era
- Hall, G. Stanley
- Happiness in Children
- Hindu Views of Childhood and Child Rearing
- Hispanic Childhoods (U.S.)
- Historical Approaches to Child Witches
- History of Childhood in America
- History of Childhood in Canada
- HIV/AIDS, Growing Up with
- Homeschooling
- Humor and Laughter
- Images of Childhood, Adulthood, and Old Age in Children’s ...
- Infancy and Ethnography
- Infant Mortality in a Global Context
- Innocence and Childhood
- Institutional Care
- Intercultural Learning and Teaching with Children
- Islamic Views of Childhood
- Japan, Childhood in
- Juvenile Detention in the US
- Key, Ellen
- Klein, Melanie
- Labor, Child
- Latin America
- Learning, Language
- Learning to Write
- Legends, Contemporary
- Literary Representations of Childhood
- Literature, Children's
- Love and Care in the Early Years
- Magazines for Teenagers
- Maltreatment, Child
- Maria Montessori
- Marxism and Childhood
- Masculinities/Boyhood
- Material Cultures of Western Childhoods
- Mead, Margaret
- Media, Children in the
- Media Culture, Children's
- Medieval and Anglo-Saxon Childhoods
- Menstruation
- Middle Childhood
- Middle East
- Migration
- Miscarriage
- Missionaries/Evangelism
- Moral Development
- Moral Panics
- Mothers
- Multi-culturalism and Education
- Music and Babies
- Nation and Childhood
- Native American and Aboriginal Canadian Childhood
- New Reproductive Technologies and Assisted Conception
- Nursery Rhymes
- Organizations, Nongovernmental
- Orphans
- Parental Gender Preferences, The Social Construction of
- Parenting
- Pediatrics, History of
- Peer Culture
- Perspectives on Boys' Circumcision
- Peter Pan
- Philosophy and Childhood
- Piaget, Jean
- Play
- Politics, Children and
- Postcolonial Childhoods
- Post-Modernism
- Poverty, Rights, and Well-being, Child
- Pre-Colombian Mesoamerica Childhoods
- Premodern China, Conceptions of Childhood in
- Prostitution and Pornography, Child
- Psychoanalysis
- Queer Theory and Childhood
- Race and Ethnicity
- Racism, Children and
- Radio, Children, and Young People
- Readers, Children as
- Refugee and Displaced Children
- Reimagining Early Childhood Education, Reconceptualizing a...
- Relational Ontologies
- Relational Pedagogies
- Rights, Children’s
- Risk and Resilience
- Russia
- School Shootings
- Sex Education in the United States
- Sexuality
- Siblings
- Siblings, Learning Disabilities and
- Social and Cultural Capital of Childhood
- Social Habitus in Childhood
- Social Movements, Children's
- Social Policy, Children and
- Socialization and Child Rearing
- Socio-cultural Perspectives on Children's Spirituality
- Sociology of Childhood
- South African Birth to Twenty Project
- South Asia
- South Asia, History of Childhood in
- Special Education
- Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence
- Spock, Benjamin
- Sports and Organized Games
- Street Children
- Street Children And Brazil
- Subcultures
- Sure Start
- Teenage Fathers
- Teenage Pregnancy
- Television
- The Bible and Children
- The Harms and Prevention of Drugs and Alcohol on Children
- The Spaces of Childhood
- Theater for Children and Young People
- Theories, Pedagogic
- Tourism
- Toys
- Transgender Children
- Tweens
- Twins and Multiple Births
- Unaccompanied Migrant Children
- United Kingdom, History of Adoption and Fostering in the
- United States, Schooling in the
- Value of Children
- Views of Childhood, Jewish and Christian
- Violence, Children and
- Visual Representations of Childhood
- Voice, Participation, and Agency
- Vygotsky, Lev and His Cultural-historical Approach to Deve...
- War
- Welfare Law in the United States, Child
- Well-Being, Child
- Western Europe and Scandinavia
- Western Literature, The Urban Child in
- Witchcraft in the Contemporary World, Children and
- Work and Apprenticeship, Children's
- Young Carers
- Young Children and Inclusion
- Young Children’s Imagination
- Young Lives
- Young People, Alcohol, and Urban Life
- Young People and Climate Activism
- Young People and Disadvantaged Environments in Affluent Co...