Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Images of childhood in southern Africa: a study of three films |
Author: | Carklin, Michael |
Year: | 2010 |
Periodical: | Journal of African Cinemas (ISSN 1754-923X) |
Volume: | 2 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 137-149 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | films children images |
Abstract: | A striking characteristic of many films from across the African continent is their focus on childhood experience and the centrality of child protagonists. Unlike many films in the West, such films are not necessarily produced for young audiences, but express broader social, communal and cosmological concerns. This article focuses on South Africa and has two broad points of focus - the one is what the author calls 'lived geographies', a focus on the representation of children in the context of space and place; the other is what he thinks of as 'rites of passage', in this case, not those formal ceremonies that bring about a transformation in identity, but the circumstances and experiences of children that are so profoundly life changing. In discussing the films 'Malunde' (Stefanie Sycholt, 2001), 'Yesterday' (Darrell James Roodt, 2003), and 'The Wooden Camera' (Ntshavheni wa Luruli, 2003) in particular, the author argues that rather than trying to formally categorize childhood representations, it is important to recognize such representations as transformative and dynamic. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |