Conceptualising Children's Film
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Conceptualising Children’s Film: Programming and Circulation of Children’s Film at Berlinale Generation Kplus and Other International Children’s Film Festivals. Laura de Lange University of Amsterdam Graduate School of Humanities MA (Heritage Studies): Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image Supervisor: Dr. F. J. J. W. (Floris) Paalman Second Reader: Dr. E. L. (Eef) Masson Master Thesis submitted by Laura de Lange (11311525) Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Floris Paalman and Eef Masson, coordinator of the P&P course, for their advice and assistance throughout this course and especially during the time spent working on this master thesis. Laura de Lange Amsterdam, June 28, 2018. Conceptualising Children’s Film: Programming and Circulation of Children’s Film at Berlinale Generation Kplus and Other International Children’s Film Festivals. Introduction: Is the Festival Only for Adults? .......................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1: Children’s Film at Festivals: Historical Perspective ................................................................ 7 1.1 Film Festival Programming in Historical Perspective ..................................................................... 7 1.2 Children’s Film Festival Programming in Historical Perspective .................................................. 10 Chapter 2: Establishing Children’s Film: Film Analyses .......................................................................... 16 2.1 Min Lilla Syster (Dir. Sanne Lenken. Sweden/Germany 2015) ..................................................... 17 2.2 Dhanak (Rainbow) (Dir. Nagesh Kukunoor. India 2015) ............................................................... 19 2.3 Ottaal (The Trap) (Dir. Jayarai Rajastekharan. India 2015) .......................................................... 22 2.4 Rara (Dir. Pepa San Martin. Chile/Argentina 2016) ..................................................................... 24 Chapter 3: Conceptualising Children’s Film: Berlinale Generation Kplus .............................................. 27 3.1 Textual Conception ....................................................................................................................... 28 3.2 Contextual Conception ................................................................................................................. 32 Chapter 4: After Berlin: Conceptualising Children’s Film on the International Film Festival Circuit ..... 38 4.1 The International Film Festival Circuit .......................................................................................... 38 4.2 The Films in the Children’s Film Festival Circuit ........................................................................... 39 4.2.1 Min Lilla Syster and Dhanak at Tiff Kids ................................................................................. 40 4.2.2 Min Lilla Syster and Dhanak at Cinekid .................................................................................. 42 4.2.3 Ottaal and Rara at Lucas International Film Festival for Young Film Lovers ......................... 44 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 48 Appendix: Festival Participation............................................................................................................. 52 Min Lilla Syster .................................................................................................................................... 52 Dhanak (Rainbow) .............................................................................................................................. 53 Ottaal (The Trap) ................................................................................................................................ 54 Rara ..................................................................................................................................................... 55 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................... 58 Introduction: Is the Festival Only for Adults? ‘Is the festival only for adults?’1 is a question posed by a group of children in an interview with the festival director of the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale): this question constitutes the founding myth for the Berlinale’s children’s film section in 1978. It was justified as children had thus far been marginalised or even ignored as festival audiences and children’s film was not on the programmers’ agendas. This has changed since the late 1970s, and today there are a number of festivals with children’s film programming. But, although many children’s film festivals and sections have been around for decades, they are scarcely represented in academic as well as industry discourses as the director of the New York International Children’s Film Festival points out: ‘Sometimes I wish we didn’t have the word children in our name […]. A lot of times, people turn their noses up at the notion of movies for children – all the way from projectionists to film writers to even people who make films.’ 2 This viewpoint is doubtlessly influenced by the constant output of commercial children’s film favouring the harmless, forgoing narrative substance. The underrepresentation can also be attributed to the difficulty to pin down any definition for children’s film as a genre. There are various aspects that have to be taken into consideration when it comes to film for children: educational, psychological, personal, institutional, and cultural aspects play key roles in defining, selecting, and assessing children’s film. Festivals with a focus or sidebar on children’s film explicitly face these difficulties and take children into account as a serious audience which is entitled to quality film.3 Marianne Redpath, director of the Berlinale’s children’s film section Generation, states that ‘we are not trying to be educative or build the audience of tomorrow. Instead we take the approach that we are programming for our audience of today and that, if young people see certain types of films, that will create demand for varied programming in the future’4. But, doesn’t the process of curating, selecting, programming, and presenting specific films for young audiences inevitably influence and shape them and their viewing habit? And how does this concern particularly apply to children’s film? 1 Felsmann, Barbara. Blicke, Begegnungen, Berührungen. 25 Jahre Kinderfilmfest. Ed. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin. Berlin: Jovis Verlag GmbH, 2002. 11. 2 Ebiri, Bilge: “Ebiri: Why is One of New York’s Best Film Festivals Mostly Unknown?” Vulture.com. March 21, 2014. New York Magazine. <http://www.vulture.com/2014/03/new-york-international-childrens-film-festival- great.html>. [Last accessed: June 24, 2018]. 3 Krumholz, Felicia and Beatriz Moreira de Azevedo Porto Gonçalves. “Participation and Learning Trajectories on the Rio International Film Festivals Section for Children and Young People.” Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy 7.4 (2012): 302-313. 303. 4 Sawyer, Clare. “The Kids Are All Right: Beyond the Mainstream in Berlinale’s Generation.” Screen Education 73 (March 2014): 96-101. 101. 3 These questions are the outset and underlying threats for this thesis. They may be equally valid for film festival programming in general, but especially for programming for young audiences who are only beginning the process of learning about and understanding film. Generation’s mission statement furthermore says that it aims at integrating young audiences into the ‘festival’s film-aesthetic discourse’ 5 and declares: Generation speaks to well-defined audiences, but there are no conventional limits when it comes to the selection and programming of films. The section is home to cinematic works that are thematically and aesthetically linked to the experiences of children and young people. The programme encloses outstanding children’s and youth films as well as films for all target audiences that are also suitable for young people.6 This vaguely formulated statement triggers plenty of questions on the target audience, the programming practice, and the films themselves, which can be condensed into the main research questions of this thesis: how do Berlinale Generation Kplus and other international children’s film festivals conceptualise children’s film? To approach this question, I examine two main aspects of conceptualising children’s films in the festival context: programming and circulation of children’s film on the international film festival circuit. The main case study of this thesis is the Berlinale’s children’s film section Generation Kplus. As part of one of the ‘A’-list festivals and a competitive section in its own right, Generation has a strict premiere policy. Every film screened at the section has to have its international premiere (outside the country of origin) in Berlin to be eligible. This makes Generation the starting point for many films on their trajectory through the international film festival network. Therefore, the section can be regarded as a trend-setter in festivals’ conceptions of children’s film. Generation is divided into two subsections: Generation Kplus shows films for young children from the age of four, with most live-action feature films recommended for children from the age of nine. Generation 14plus targets