Following his internationally acclaimed series The Story of Film, critic, presenter and filmmaker Mark Cousins’s new documentary has a tighter focus: children in global cinema, or evocations of childhood as seen within 53 classic films from 25 countries.
Having co-created the 8 Foundation with Tilda Swinton – an organisation dedicated to ensuring children’s access to as wide a range of cinema as possible, and to maximise their enjoyment of it – Cousins is perhaps uniquely well-placed to carry out this survey.
Analysing popular classics like E. T. or Kes, canonical stalwarts like Tarkovsky’s Mirror or Truffaut’s The 400 Blows or more recent releases such as Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, Cousins also introduces excerpts from little known masterpieces; plundering an eclectic selection of films to examine, with deft delight, the experience and portrayal of childhood onscreen.
He refuses to analyse films within their specific contexts, abandoning chronology in favour of positioning clips from contemporary films against black-and-white oldies, and juxtaposing world cinema against Hollywood in his quest to show how the inventiveness and imagination of childhood is mirrored by the endless discoveries afforded by cinema.