This publication by Barbora Kyas and Noel Brown explores the potential for children’s and youth film festivals as spaces for the exhibition of radical children’s films.
The chapter, which is available to view/download, is based partly on interviews with programmers from a range of festivals, mostly in Europe and several of them ECFA members.
The authors find that many children’s and youth film festival programmers are deeply committed to the idea of radical children’s film – broadly understood as content that substantially deviates from the stylistic and/or political mainstream. However, the chapter also concludes that festivals are often limited by the requirements of schools, teachers, parents and local government, and the wider belief that children’s film ought to be wholesome, apolitical and avoid potential controversy.
This chapter is part of a volume published by Edinburgh University Press entitled Radical Children’s Film and Television, and edited by Noel Brown. With case studies from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Albania, Japan, Argentina and Australia, the book sheds light on film and television for children that seeks to make a critical intervention in culture and society. It also investigates the subversive uses of children’s media culture by individuals, communities of fandom, political groups, and creative practitioners. The introductory chapter is available freely on the Edinburgh University Press website (via the ‘Resources’ tab) here.
Introduced by Noel Brown