BOYHOOD STUDIES
FILM and DOCUMENTARY
It is our contention that some films may offer productive ways of conceptualizing male development. The list below includes non-contemporary and non-mainstream examples of such films. Whatever the power of film, it is a venue for psychoanalytic deliberation and social commentary. With Mann (2005) we ask: 'How is the story of a boy different from the story of a girl?'.[1]; or with Wright (1996), 'Can girls play the game?'.[2]
Is Golding's Lord of the Flies about mankind, children, or boys? In his preface to a commercial presentation of the book, the author responded to the question of gender: "Well, if they had been little boys and little girls, we being who we are, sex would have raised its lovely head. And I didn't want this book to be about sex...I mean sex is too trivial a thing to get in with a story like this, which was about the problem of Evil and on the problem of how people are to live together in society, not just as lovers or man and wife."
"Boy" can be perspective, plot or metaphor. Some films are apparently about something other than "masculinity" (e.g. Vozvrashcheniye, Die Blechtrommel), even though a masculinist perspective on the subject seems to have made a male cast (fathers, sons, men who stopped growing at the age of three) eligible. However we like to see film, like any fictional rendering of ideas, as open to a wide range of interpretations. In what follows, when there have been academic commentaries, we will include references to them in the column to the right. If the film is based on a book, the reference may be given.
Currently available reviews of boys-on-screen, notably by Holmstrom (1996)[3] and the recent book edited by Pomerance and Gateward (2005)[4], do not provide an integrated perspective. This is work for the future. This list obviously is work in progress, check for additions. What has been selected for inclusion is entirely subjective. While we present films and documentaries in separate tables, the decision to do so is arbitrary. Ethnographic movies on the subject of "male socialization" are not presented. We hereby invite such a listing.
Please see IMDB for info, opinion and review. Created: 17 Nov 2006. Last revised: Apr 22 2007. Please suggest eligible additions. For academics: the eligible databases include MLA, MUSE, JSTOR, and PEP.
[1] Mann, Karen B. (2005) Lost Boys and Girls in Spielberg's Minority Report. Journal of Narrative Theory 35,2:196-217
[2] Wright, Alan (1996) A Wrinkle in Time: The Child, Memory and The Mirror. Wide Angle 18,1:47-68
[3] Holmstrom, John (1996) The moving picture boy: an international encyclopaedia from 1895-1995. Wilby, Norwich: Michael Russell.
[4] Pomerance, Murray & Gateward, Frances (Eds.) (2005) Where The Boys Are: Cinemas of Masculinity and Youth (Contemporary Approaches to Film and Television). Detroit MI: Wayne State University Press.
Mar/ Tun
Barnens Ö (1980) Sw Based on a 1976 book by P. C. Jersild. Billy Elliot (2000) UK Blechtrommel, Die / The Tin Drum (1978) Ge Blue Velvet (1986) US Boys Don't Cry (1999) US Siegel, Carol (2003) Curing Boys Don’t Cry: Brandon Teena’s Stories, Genders 37 txt ; Rigney, Melissa (2003-2004) Brandon Goes to Hollywood: Boys Don't Cry and the Transgender Body Film. Film Criticism 28,2:4-23; Renz, Tilo. "'You Mean, if You Was a Guy ...': Kimberly Peirce's Film 'Boys Don't Cry', gelesen mit Judith Butlers Konzeption des Körpers." Zeitschrift für Germanistik, 12:2 (2002), 334-44 Boys of St. Vincent, The (1992, 1993) Ca UK/GE Cidade de Deus / City of God (2002) Bra/Fr/US Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, The (2002) US E.T. (1982) US Gerry (2003) US History Boys, The (2006) UK Italianetz (2005) Rus Ivanovo detstvo / Ivan's Childhood / My Name Is Ivan (1962) Rus Kes (1969) UK Kolya (1996) Cz L.I.E. (2001) US Léolo (1992) Fr/Ca Little Prince, The (1974) US (Fr) Lord of the Flies, The (1963 and 1990) UK,US Based on William Golding's 1954 novel Ma Vie En Rose / My Life in Pink (1997) Fr
Mitt liv som Hund / My Life as a Dog (1985) Sw Oliver! (1968) UK Otets i syn / Father and Son (2003) Rus link Pelle Erobreren / Pelle the Conqueror (1987) De/Sw Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco (1981) / The Law of the Weakest Braz Quatre cents coups, Les / 400 Blows (1959) Fr Souffle au coeur, Le (1971) Fr link Stand by Me (1986) US Svolochi (2006) Rus link Vozvrashcheniye / The Return (2003) Rus Wild Tigers I Have Known (2006) US site Yolgnu Boy (2001) Aus Zerkalo / The Mirror (1975) Rus Documentaries
Boys of Baraka, The (2005) US link Boys to Men? The Crisis in Teenage Masculinity link Britain's Boy Soldiers (2004) UK Britten's Children (2004) UK link Buddha's Lost Children (2006) link Дети Ленинграда / Children of Leningradsky, The (2004) Rus link Gott om pojkar - ont om män? (1995) Swe link Hitler's Children (2005) Channel 4 docs Jump! Boys (2005) Chi Raising Cain: Boys in Focus (2006) US link Scout’s Honor (2001) US link Smell of Burning Ants, the (1992) link Testosterone Boys (2002) UK BBC docs Urgan, l'enfant de l'Himalaya (2003) Fr link
